Posthumous Jimi releases were once greeted with scepticism or hostility after the 70s’ barrel-scraping nadir but, since Experience Hendrix took control of a vast amount of unreleased material in 1995, quality has improved immeasurably, recently upping gears in collaboration with Sony.
The jewel in the current releases, also including deluxe editions of the BBC Sessions and Blues, is this jaw-dropping four-disc set, boasting over four hours’ worth of material which genuinely is “previously unreleased” or “rare”. It’s heartening and downright exciting to see such care and studied annotation going into providing something fresh for previously long-suffering (and therefore hard-to-please) Hendrix diehards still clinging to Reclamation’s sprawling In The Studio set.
There have been many dodgy sets of pre-fame Hendrix in the past, but Disc One’s often-revelatory array of pre-Experience singles repeatedly show that Jimi’s liquid funk, neckswooping ejaculations and quicksilver salvos were already fully formed on tracks by The Isley Brothers, Don Covay (including the Mercy, Mercy which so impressed Steve Cropper), Little Richard, King Curtis, Rosa Lee Brooks (and Arthur Lee), plus lesser-known gems with Jimmy Norman, Billy Lamont and The Icemen, all boasting unmistakably Hendrixian killer intros.
The next three CDs trace Jimi’s trajectory from Experience to death, using alternate versions of album tracks or unreleased recordings to give the much-told story new sparkle, depth and fascination. Of course, some have appeared on bootlegs, but the aching version of Dylan’s Tears Of Rage, which this hardcore fan has simply never encountered, beautifully illustrates the project’s motivation.
It’s known that Hendrix spent two weeks in October 1968 recording at LA’s TTG studios, hopeful manager Mike Jeffery constructing a work-in-progress album from hours of tapes. Some of this appears, including Calling All Devil’s Children, Messenger, the time-stopping New Rising Sun Overture and Hear My Freedom (jammed with organist Lee Michaels and drummer Buddy Miles). 1969 continues with a charged 21-minute alternative version of Young/Hendrix from Nine To The Universe, LA Forum versions of The Star-Spangled Banner and Purple Haze, and soulful Mastermind from the Shokan House sessions. The telepathic interplay of Band Of Gypsies is also highlighted on 15 searing minutes of Stone Free, captured at the Fillmore on 31 December 1969.
Disc Four continues on a looser, more exploratory route, highlights including a translucent Everlasting First with Arthur Lee, the spectacular Berkeley Red House and a band version of Bolero, the Spanish-tinged piece unleashed at Woodstock. The set closes with the gentle introspection of Suddenly November Morning, recorded in March, 1970 at the Londonderry Hotel in London, as opening track of the mythical Black Gold Suite, previously only known to exist on never-heard cassettes.
Even the Bob Smeaton-directed 90-minute film, Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Child, brings something new by including previously-unseen footage and memorabilia from the family archive, while narrated from Jimi’s postcards, writings and interviews by Bootsy Collins, the stunningly perfect choice.
“Perfect” is a rarely-used word around posthumous Hendrix projects, but this lovingly-constructed monolith is as close as it gets so far.
