Steve Vai - Jibboom

This is a performance by guitarist Steve Vai playing something a little more bluesy and outside his comfort-zone. The song appears on Vai's 1999 album "The Ultra Zone".
On the album Vai mentions that this track is an homage to blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. And you can definitely hear the resemblance, it's a classic blues progression that sort of is a take-off/sounds similar to songs recorded by SRV song like Scuttle Buttin', Mary Had a Little Lamb and Testify. It's an homage and it's own original thing, but the general feel and groove of the song is similar to many SRV songs.
Steve Vai recently said in a video posted on his official youtube channel that blues is outside his comfort-zone. He jokingly says that he plays blues within the comforts of his own home which is a pretty funny thing to say. (I've embeded the video below, he also shares some very good practice-techniques for guitar)

I really love how long this performance is. It starts out with the basic song, and then goes into Vai soloing. Then it turns into a "call and response" sort of thing between Vai and the bassist which is just awesome. The bassist really does an amazing job, and the two performers play to well together and interact so well on stage. At the end Vai goes into a Hendrix style guitar thing, making sounds by using the whammy bar, the natural harmonics and the control knobs to really make the guitar scream.
This is an awesome performance and awesome showmanship. Gotta love that!!

Enjoy ; )

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Testify

This is a live performance from blues guitarist extraordinaire Stevie Ray Vaughan playing the instrumental song Testify live from the El Mocambo venue in Canada.
The song originally consisted of two different recordings of the same song, but with different lyrics. They have been dubbed the names Testify Parts I and II. The song was recorded by The Isley Brothers in 1964 who at this time had Jimi Hendrix on guitar. Embeded below is a short clip of the original recording (or at least one of the original recordings with Hendrix on guitar). It sounds different and has lyrics, but you can recognize the riff that Stevie did a take-off on.

Stevie's version was released on the 1983 album Texas Flood and it was the fifth track on this record. It starts out with a stand-alone guitar riff and on the 7th bar the bass and drums kick in and play with the guitar for the rest of the song.
I think it's a very good song, and without Hendrix's version we wouldn't have had Stevie's. Hendrix just seems a bit like he's holding back, he was playing with a group and hadn't branched out as a solo artist at this point. Remember we were still four years away from Voodoo Chile (Slight Return), but he definitely shines on this as well. Stevie's version just sort of became the famous one, and is in my opinion the superior version.
Especially from The El Mocambo gig which is one of the best gigs ever recorded. It's so good, and if the DVD "Live at The El Mocambo" isn't in your collection, it ought to be!!

Enjoy ; )