Given that Jimi Hendrix's career as a frontman lasted only about three years, it might be hard to believe that there's still great material that hasn't been officially released even 40 years after his death (of course, unofficially released is a different matter). But here is Jimi's three-night stand at Winterland in San Francisco from October of 1968, which, despite excellent recordings by Wally Heider, sat largely unreleased until 2011. A single disc was compiled and released by Rykodisc in the late '80s (there was also a hard-to-find three-track bonus disc), but had been out of print for years when this box set arrived.
The Winterland shows were notable for a few reasons. The original Jimi Hendrix Experience had been together for two years and were probably playing at the height of their powers in October 1968 (they would break up in June of 1969)…
The Windmill are a Norwegian progressive rock band formed in 2001 in the outskirts of Oslo. The music is symphonic neo prog influenced by several bands from the golden years of the seventies, such as Genesis, Pink Floyd, Camel and others. The debut album "To be Сontinued …" was released May 2010.
The album is filled with excellent compositions, built around melodic guitars, powerful organs, lovely vocal arrangements and some superb synthesizers. The album even contains a fantastic 21-min. epic, entitled ''A Day in a Hero's Life'', with strong Genesis, Yes and Camel inspirations, led by strong breaks, dramatic changes, instant melodies and a very rich and sensitive approach, incorporating influences also from Folk Music and Heavy Rock. But the remaining pieces are actually on the same level, full of delicate flutes, smooth organ and intricate guitar ideas to go along with quite decent vocals…
How could a combo named the Insect Trust be anything other than eclectic? Hoboken Saturday Night (1970) was the second of two platters from an interesting aggregate whose core consisted of multi-instrumentalists Luke Faust (harmonica, banjo, electric piano, fiddle), Trevor Koehler (baritone sax, soprano sax, piccolo, sewer drum, flute), Robert Palmer (alto sax, clarinet, recorder), Nancy Jeffries (vocals), and Bill Barth (lead guitar, steel guitar). The rhythm section was fleshed out by a sizable and equally diverse coterie of session musicians such as jazz legend Elvin Jones (drums), Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (drums), Charles "Buddy" Nealy (drums), Donald MacDonald (drums), William Folwell (bass, trumpet), Bob Bushnell (bass), Ralph Casale (rhythm guitar), and Hugh McCracken (rhythm guitar). Collectively, they touched upon facets of the singer/songwriter, psychedelic, and folk-rock subgenres, while somehow eluding them all…