Jomy Hendrix

Hendrix in the West is a collection of extremely good live Hendrix performances between 1968-1970. Three different concerts are sampled on this release, one of the few official live Hendrix releases following his death. Standouts include "Red House" and "Voodoo Chile" from the San Diego Sports Arena, a great rendition of "Blue Suede Shoes" from the Berkeley Community Center, and the brief but entertaining coupling of "God Save the Queen" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" from the Isle of Wight. Noel Redding appears on bass on the three songs taken from the San Diego show and Billy Cox appears on bass for the rest of the tracks.

Seventeen songs from 1967 BBC broadcasts, when the Jimi Hendrix Experience had yet to burn out from the wheel of constant touring, management hassles, and internal strife. They're in good, enthusiastic form as they run through early gems like "Hey Joe," "Foxy Lady," "Fire," and "Stone Free," the lack of studio polish giving these versions a loose feel. The Experience studio albums are still considerably superior to this set, but it's certainly worth acquiring by any serious Hendrix fan, not least because it has several covers that didn't make it on to the three proper Experience LPs. Several of these ("Hoochie Koochie Man," "Killing Floor," "Catfish Blues") reveal his sometimes overlooked affinity for Chicago-style electric blues; there are also a couple of surprises ("Hound Dog" and "Day Tripper"). With good sound, it's a solid addition to the Hendrix library, demonstrating his versatility in various rock, soul, and blues styles.

It was the idea of Peter Bursch, the guitar teacher of the nation and bandleader of the Krautrock legend Bröselmaschine, 20 years after the death of Jimi Hendrix to put together an illustrious crowd of hip musicians and to organize a Rockpalast tribute concert in 1991. Rockpalast mastermind Peter Rüchel and director Christian Wagner were quick to get enthusiastic about this idea. Through his personal contacts Peter was able to find some really competent musicians who were willing to deal with this idea. So an All Star Band was formed from very different exceptional musicians like Uli Jon Roth (Scorpions), who also took over the musical direction of this project, Jack Bruce (Cream, West, Bruce and Laing), John Wetton (King Crimson, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep, UK, Asia etc.), Simon Phillips (The Who, Toto, Asia etc.), Randy Hansen and many others.

This 23-song compilation was a choice European release when it first appeared as a double-LP from Polydor in 1983, partly because of the cool looking cover, but also for doing the welcome job of assembling together the A- and B-sides of all of the Jimi Hendrix singles released between January 1967 and 1983. There are a few caveats that must be pointed out before we go further, however. The first is, of course, that this was a U.K. release and, thus, represents his British singles from that period - not that there was an enormous amount of difference between the tracks chosen for his 45s in the U.K. and the U.S. during Hendrix's lifetime; there were just more of them in the U.K., and they charted much higher there, whereas in the U.S. most of his sales were concentrated in his LPs…

This special DVD presentation of Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church presents the legendary guitarist in full flight at the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival before the largest US audience of his career…