Jimi Hendrix

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").

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…

At the start of the 1980s, it dawned on somebody in charge of Jimi Hendrix's musical legacy that a whole generation of new listeners had come of age since the guitarist's demise. That meant it was time for a fresh raid on the vaults and a fresh, authorized album release to fly the flag of the Hendrix estate, amid the steady stream of bootleg, gray market, and other unauthorized collections of his early work starting to fill up record store bins and browsers. Kiss the Sky did not just resurrect and recycle old familiar recordings, but included a pair of tracks that were new to most listeners and had a lot of meaning for serious fans. The album walked a fine line, emphasizing the more challenging side of Hendrix's work without ignoring some key elements of his mass appeal…

After 40 years, a number of ill-conceived posthumous albums, and countless bootlegs, one would almost have to be skeptical of a new album billed as "12 previously unreleased studio recordings - almost 60 minutes of unheard Jimi Hendrix!" The good news is that Valleys of Neptune largely delivers on that promise. Even hardcore collectors will likely be surprised at how much of this album they haven't heard. But much of this material has been available before in some form, official and otherwise. Although there were tons of posthumous overdubs, elements of these very versions of "Stone Free" and "Hear My Train Comin'" were used as building blocks for the versions on Crash Landing and Midnight Lightning, respectively…

Analogue Productions presents Hybrid SACD editions of Jimi Hendrix Experience's landmark 1967 album Axis: Bold as Love. Newly remastered by by noted mastering engineer Bernie Grundman from the original analog master tapes, it contains both the mono and stereo mixes for each historic title in sensational pure DSD sound.

Jimi Hendrix's second album followed up his groundbreaking debut effort with a solid collection of great tunes and great interactive playing between himself, Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell, and the recording studio itself. Wisely retaining manager Chas Chandler to produce the album and Eddie Kramer as engineer, Hendrix stretched further musically than the first album, but even more so as a songwriter…