Experience Hendrix, the estate of Jimi Hendrix, continues to reissue music from the late guitarist and new, previously unreleased projects. There have not been many musical artists from the past with more posthumous releases than Hendrix. Fortunately, the quality of these releases has mostly been quite good.
The reissues have also been reflective of the many format changes of music since his death in 1970. While very soon after his death, many Hendrix reissues came out, the CD age, beginning in the early ’80s, offered an opportunity to put out previously released recordings, but also a plethora of unreleased live and studio works. With the advent of the more recent vinyl revival, releases of music from Hendrix have brought about reissues and new releases that reflect the way his music was meant to be experienced, on vinyl.
This latest, new release is yet another previously unreleased live concert recording, this one from The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Hendrix, Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell). The vinyl set is a two-LP, gatefold package with archival inner sleeves and a 12-page color booklet, and it includes essays by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top and former Los Angeles Times pop music writer Randy Lewis. It is also available on CD.
It is from a key year in Hendrix history: 1969. The show is from April 26th and it was recorded at the Los Angeles Forum, a still relatively new venue and one that had only been presenting concerts for a short time. This was in an era when arena concerts were becoming more common and the Experience was peaking in terms of its fame. It was also during a period though, when the group was beginning to slowly drift apart.
Bassist Noel Redding formed his group Fat Mattress, a side project. That group’s debut album would come out in August. The group had also played live and had opened for the Experience on April 12th. The Experience had begun playing that year in the US on March 30th. After the Forum shows, it would play nine more shows before Hendrix went solo and then later formed Band of Gypsys.
The opening acts for the two Forum shows the group played were Chicago and Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys. Hendrix produced the latter’s debut album released that year, The Street Giveth… and the Street Taketh Away. Surprisingly, this concert finds the Experience in top form, and Hendrix is loose and talks quite a bit to the audience throughout and sounds like he’s having a great time.
The group performs mostly songs from its three studio albums; four from the US and UK versions of Are You Experienced?, one from Axis: Bold as Love, and one from its final studio album, the double-LP set, Electric Ladyland. “Tax Free,” which has appeared before on posthumous releases is included, as is an instrumental cover of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love.”
This new release was prepared by the Experience Hendrix team of Janie Hendrix, John McDermott and Eddie Kramer. Kramer, who worked on many of the original recordings by Hendrix, mixed the album, which is pressed on 150-gram vinyl at QRP.
The recording of this concert, occurred when live concert sound reproduction and recording was finally coming into its own at such large venues as sports arenas like the Forum. Like he has done on previous Hendrix reissues, Eddie Kramer does a superb job here. Other than a little shrillness on “Foxey Lady,” the music has a warm, tight feel, despite its inherent distortion and loudness. This is yet another important live Hendrix release of music from a previously unreleased concert and a must have for Hendrix fans.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B
