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The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience were an English/American rock band famous for the guitar work, original songs, outrageous style and performance of its eponymous frontman Jimi Hendrix on songs such as "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze", "Foxy Lady", "Fire", "Little Wing", "Spanish Castle Magic", "All Along the Watchtower" and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)".
The Jimi Hendrix Experience was formed with Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell behind the drums and suddenly there was this black guy on the scene doing things with his guitar that were just not possible. Respect from his peers and adoration from the crowds was instantaneous. They toured Europe, breaking attendance records at one club after another, and then signed a recording contract.
A series of singles that all gained top 10 rank, followed. 'Hey Joe', 'Purple Haze' and 'The Wind Cries Mary ' made Jimi a star in England, setting the stage for his Monterey appearance.
James Marshal Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington, on November 27, 1942; an American of African, European, Cherokee Indian and Mexican descent. An unsettled home environment made Jimi spend much of his early years staying with his grandmother, a full-blooded Cherokee Indian, in Canada.
Following four years were hard work touring the States playing back-up guitar for various R&B bands including Little Richard, Ike and Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, the Isley Brothers and the late King Curtis among others. The conditions were not suited to his radical temperament and eventually he was drawn to New York 's Greenwich Village where he recorded with the Isley Brothers, Curtis Knight and various other artists.
Then in late 1965 he formed his first band - Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. They worked the Village clubs where he was seen by other musicians who immediately recognized his talent, and word of this young virtuoso reached ex-Animals bassist Chas Chandler. Chas was so impressed after hearing him play he offered to become his manager and persuaded Jimi to accompany him back to England.
England at this stage - late 1966 - was musically ruled by bands such as The Who, The Beatles and Cream with Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck standing alone as the three leading exponents of the electric guitar.
Though initially conceived as Hendrix's backing band, The Experience soon became much more than that. Following the lead of Cream, they were one of the first groups to popularize the "power trio" format, which essentially strips a rock band lineup down to the essentials: bass, guitar and drums. This smaller format also encourages more extroverted playing from the band members, often at very high volumes.
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Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live At The Hollywood Bowl – August 18, 1967
by Doug Collette
The archiving of Jimi Hendrix' vault has apparently reached the point where what happens on a given release is less important than when it happened. So it is with Live At The Hollywood Bowl--August 18, 1967, the setlist for which is similar to that of his ground-breaking June '67 performance at Monterey Pop, one the late rock icon would soon come to rue as he continued live appearances beyond a short stint in July '67 opening for the ...
read moreThe Jimi Hendrix Experience: Los Angeles Forum April 26, 1969
by Doug Collette
The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Los Angeles Forum April 26, 1969 is an integral component of one of the earliest posthumous Jimi Hendrix anthologies, the four x CD set Lifelines: The Jimi Hendrix Story (Reprise, 1990). Yet it appeared there in slightly truncated form, and until this standalone release, the entire concert has never been issued in its entirety. With various selections having been packaged in something of piecemeal fashion over the years, it is only now, in 2022, complete with ...
read moreJimi Hendrix Experience: Live In Maui
by Doug Collette
It's been quite the circuitous route from the second official posthumous Jimi Hendrix release Rainbow Bridge (Reprise, 1971) to Music, Money, Madness... Live In Maui. And while video component of the 2020 Jimi Hendrix archive release seems like much ado about nothing in its examination of the aforementioned film, the concert content of the Experience reminds how endlessly fascinating is/was the late guitar icon on stage. The audio portion of the package represents the first authorized release of ...
read moreThe Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
by Doug Collette
Given the voluminous prior excavations of Jimi Hendrix' vault, the producers of and contributors to the Jimi Hendrix Experience's Electric Ladyland 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition deserve some kudos. This 3-CD plus Blu-ray set compares favorably to similarly-conceived archive presentations released coincidental to it, specifically More Blood, More Tracks (Legacy Music, 2018), Vol. 14 of The Bootleg Series of Bob Dylan and the 50th Anniversary editions of The Beatles (Apple, 1968) a/k/a 'The White Album.' Yet even as this ...
read moreThe Jimi Hendrix Experience: Miami Pop Festival
by Doug Collette
An adjunct to the DVD release of Hear My Train A Comin', an installment of the PBS 'American Masters' series, Miami Pop Festival captures the original Jimi Hendrix Experience flush with success and the rightful expectation of more to come. At the time of this May 1968 appearance, the threesome was recording Electric Ladyland (Reprise, 1968) free of the ennui and creative/personal conflict that subsequently fractured the solid bond so evident in their musicianship here. (Or perhaps the nascent creative ...
read moreThe Jimi Hendrix Experience: The Jimi Hendrix Experience: The Jimi Hendrix Experience
by Mike Perciaccante
Originally released in 2000 on Sony/Legacy, the Jimi Hendrix Experience box set featured 56 then-previously unreleased concert and studio recordings that spanned the late guitarist's career, covering the years 1966 through 1970. The box set has been hailed as one of the best multi-disc compilations ever released.The 2013 edition of the four-CD set has been expanded to include four additional tracks, including: a live performance of Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone," recorded at San Francisco's Winterland in ...
read moreJimi Hendrix Experience: Live at Berkeley
by Doug Collette
Jimi Hendrix ExperienceLive at BerkeleySony-Legacy Music2012Released with virtually no fanfare, the compact disc of The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live at Berkley is nonetheless one of the most noteworthy of the seemingly innumerable archive titles that have come out since the rock icon's death. Though the graphics and design are virtually identical to a previously issued package, the sound, though apparently not remastered, is less trebly and more full, all the ...
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