It's amazing to look back at all Jimi Hendrix accomplished in his short life: he was arguably rock 'n' roll's greatest guitarist and one of the most enduring icons of the `60s, and he released a string of singles and three albums with the Experience that changed pop music almost as much as Bob Dylan and the Beatles before him.
But before doing all of this, Hendrix mastered the blues.
Like his British peers Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, Hendrix learned the guitar from old Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Charlie Christian records. As Jimmy James, he moved to New York City and paid his dues as a backup guitarist and bassist for many rock 'n' roll and R&B luminaries, from Little Richard to Sam Cooke. After a brief stint in his own band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, he hooked up with the Animals' Chris Chandler -- who later became Hendrix's manager and Svengali figure -- and formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
That's when the fun started.
The band's first single, "Hey Joe," a cover of an old wife-beating folk song, might be a classic-rock song today, but it sounded like blues in the mid-'60s.
As Hendrix's talent quickly grew, he started doing things to rock and blues songs that nobody had ever done before. But for all the histrionics, innovative guitar-playing and iconoclasm, one of Hendrix's central legacies was his advancement of the blues. Nobody played them quite the same after him (except perhaps Stevie Ray Vaughan).
Hendrix's death on Sept. 18, 1970, in London, came around the same time as the deaths of Janis Joplin and the Doors' Jim Morrison, and dealt a severe blow to the free-love generation. Oddly (and cynically) enough, many more Hendrix albums have been released after his death than during his life.
In January of this year, MCA Records entered into an exclusive long-term, worldwide licensing agreement with the Hendrix family-owned company, Experience Hendrix, for the release of the legendary Jimi Hendrix catalog. Experience Hendrix assumed control of the famed guitarist's recorded legacy 27 years after his death.
This agreement also marks the first time ever that the Hendrix catalog will be released on compact discs made from the first generation original masters. Among those involved in the new remastering process is Hendrix's original engineer Eddie Kramer. John McDermott, a long-respected Hendrix authority, will work to ensure the quality and integrity of future releases.
Jimi Hendrix
"First New Rays of the Rising Sun"
Experience Hendrix/MCA Records
Hendrix was working on this album at his newly opened Electric Lady Studios up until the time of his death. While this album's tracks have been previously released, this is the first time that they are presented together on the same album as conceived by Hendrix. The album draws together 17 songs whose creation spans from March 1968 through Hendrix's final sessions in Aug. 1970.
Jimi Hendrix
"South Saturn Delta"
Experience Hendrix/MCA Records
This album contains 15 songs and features music representing every incarnation of Hendrix's professional recording career from 1967 to 1970, including both versions of The Experience (before and after The Band of Gypsys), Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, his expanded Woodstock ensemble and Band of Gypsys. The album captures the music legend's stylistic diversity and is filled with tasty ballads, blues, rock and jazz selections.
Highlights include a never before released instrumental version of "Little Wing," "Sweet Angel," (the early version of "Angel," featuring Hendrix on all instruments) and a solo version of a live favorite, "Message to the Universe (Message to Love)," recorded several months prior to the previously released "Message to Love."
The album also dusts off long out-of-print tracks originally issued on the posthumous albums "War Hero" and "Rainbow Bridge," including "Look Over Yonder," "Tax Free," "Midnight," "Pali Gap" and "Bleeding Heart."
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
"BBC Sessions"
Experience Hendrix/MCA Records
This two-disc album follows the release of BBC packages from the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. The set includes never before heard live performances as well as rarely performed gems including "Burning of the Midnight Lamp," "Little Miss Lover" and "Love Or Confusion," exuberant
renditions of Bob Dylan's "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" and the Beatles' "Daytripper." Stevie Wonder, who was also on-hand at the BBC for an interview during
one of the group's sets, joins on drums for two songs, "Jammin'" and Wonder's own "I Was Made to Love Her."
Jimi Hendrix
"Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix"
Experience Hendrix/MCA Records
This 20-track collection of classic songs includes cuts from all of Hendrix's studio albums and "First Rays of the New Rising Sun." The highlight is a 24-page booklet with rare photographs of Hendrix in the studio and onstage, as well as detailed information about the composition and recording of each track.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
"Live at the Oakland Coliseum"
Dagger Records
The Hendrix family has followed the lead of the Grateful Dead and created a bootleg label, Dagger Records, accessible via the company's Web site (http://www.Jimi-Hendrix.com). The idea is to make recordings with limited commercial appeal available to listeners more concerned with hearing anything Hendrix did than with whether the recording is historic or pristine.
The label's first release is an amateur recording by Ken Koga of a 1969 performance at the Oakland Coliseum, featuring Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady. Future plans for Dagger releases include demo recordings and one of the Experience's first concert appearances.
A pair of albums worth searching for:
Various Artists
"Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix"
Reprise Records
The production is uneven -- program the player to skip the Spin Doctors' forgettable version of "Spanish Castle Magic" -- but P.M. Dawn's fiddly take on "You Got Me Floatin'" and Buddy Guy's made-for-himself "Red House" do Hendrix's ghost justice.
Various Artists
"In From the Storm"
RCA Victor
I ordered this one through my BMG membership back in 1995. This album is filled with stars such as Carlos Santana, Brian May, John McLaughlin, Buddy Miles, Bootsy Collins, Stanley Clarke, Billy Cox and Steve Vai (on a sweet version of "Drifting") performing Hendrix classics with the London Metropolitan Orchestra.
This review is copyright © 1999 by Matt Alcott, and Blues On Stage, all rights reserved.