Jimi Hendrix – The Ultimate Experience (polydor Hdcd Limited Edition 1992)

As a single-disc compilation, The Ultimate Experience is hard to beat. Drawing from all of the original Jimi Hendrix Experience albums, the 20-track collection hits all of the major highpoints – "Purple Haze," "All Along the Watchtower," "Little Wing," "Red House," "The Wind Cries Mary," "Highway Chile," "Angel" – and gives an accurate impression of why Hendrix was so revolutionary and influential…

As a single-disc compilation, The Ultimate Experience is hard to beat. Drawing from all of the original Jimi Hendrix Experience albums, the 20-track collection hits all of the major highpoints – "Purple Haze," "All Along the Watchtower," "Little Wing," "Red House," "The Wind Cries Mary," "Highway Chile," "Angel" – and gives an accurate impression of why Hendrix was so revolutionary and influential. All three of Hendrix's completed studio albums are mandatory listening, but The Ultimate Experience is a terrific introduction to the guitarist.

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 was the first of the posthumous releases in the Jimi Hendrix catalog and probably the best as it collected most of the studio tracks that were either completed or very near completion before Hendrix died…

Out of several live Hendrix albums, The Jimi Hendrix Concerts stands as one of the very best. Taken from shows at Winterland, The Royal Albert Hall, and from various venues in New York, Berkeley, and San Diego, the set includes hits like "Fire," "Voodoo Chile," and "Hey Joe," as well as fine blues like "Red House," "Bleeding Heart," and "Hear My Train a Comin'." Highlights include a definitive version of "Little Wing" and one of the most assured and driving versions of "Voodoo Chile" (these and four other stellar tracks come from what must have been an amazing concert at Winterland in the fall of '68). Another standout is "I Don't Live Today," which features a fine mix of jazz-inspired soloing and various feedback and distortion "tricks" (tricks that figure into Hendrix's way of "playing with the electronics," and which make up one of the more innovative aspects of his guitar playing). Hendrix gets adept and sympathetic support throughout from bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell (Band of Gypsies' bassist Billy Cox replaces Redding on "Red House" and "Hey Joe").