A new Jimi Hendrix box set is coming, and it features 38 unreleased tracks recorded by the late electric guitar legend at his Electric Lady studio months before his death.
Since Hendrix’s untimely passing in September 1970, there have been many releases of B-Sides, rarities, re-masters, and other oddities, but very few offered new content.
Thankfully, the Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision box set, doesn’t fall for that trap – all but one of the set’s 39 tracks have never been released.
The songs were recorded by what was a new-look Jimi Hendrix Experience band. While Mitch Mitchell remained on the drum stool, bassist Billy Cox was settling into life in the Experience having replaced Noel Redding the previous year.
Interestingly, Cox had previously turned down a spot in the band earlier in his career, believing it would protect the guitarist from racism.
Angel [Take 7] is the first song from the new batch of lost gems to be unveiled. The song is a newly mixed and stripped-down version of the cut, featuring the original performances of Hendrix, Mitchell, and Cox that were committed to tape on July 23, 1970.
Unlike other versions that have come to light after Hendrix’s passing, this version is free of the additional drum and percussive layers Mitchell added after Hendrix had died.
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During this period, Hendrix was tirelessly working on First Rays Of The New Rising Sun, the ambitious double album that was set to succeed his 1968 masterpiece, Electric Ladyland.
The environment of Hendrix’s freshly constructed studio proved a breeding ground for creativity, with the trio piecing Night Bird Flying, Freedom, and Dolly Dagger together in the space.
This new box set offers a new, unblemished insight into their jams, with four-track demos of Valleys Of Neptune and Heaven Has No Sorrow serving as particular highlights.
There are also some far more sprawling offerings, including a 26-minute spontaneous jam entitled The Long Medley, which includes Beginnings, Hey Baby (New Rising Sun), Keep On Groovin’, and Freedom.
In addition, mixes of tracks completed by Hendrix and producer Eddie Kramer before he left the studio to perform at the Isle of Wight festival in England are included.
The box set’s release coincides with a new documentary of the same name, which will be screened in cinemas. It tells the story of how a dilapidated Manhattan nightclub was transformed into Hendrix’s now-legendary, state-of-the-art studio.
“The construction of Electric Lady [Studios] was a nightmare,” Kramer says in the doc’s trailer. “We were always running out of money. Poor Jimi had to go back out on the road, make some money, come back, then we could pay the crew.
“Late in ’69 we just hit a wall financially and the place just shut down. He borrows against his future royalties, and we’re off to the races. We could make an atmosphere that he felt comfortable in.”
John Lennon, The Clash, AC/DC, Chic, David Bowie, and Stevie Wonder would all go on to record at the studio.
“My brother had a musical vision,” Janie Hendrix reflects. “With this project, it felt appropriate to shed light not only on his own music, but also on his lasting contribution of Electric Lady Studios.
“He was driven internally to build a home base where he could record everything he felt. While his life was cut short, so many other talented artists continue to express themselves within those magical walls on 52 West 8th Street.”
Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision is out September 13 via Legacy Recordings.
