The multi-disc Blu-ray/CD/vinyl package captures two full sets of the Jimi Hendrix Experience at the height of their power, alongside never-before-released footage, interviews and more
We’re always eager for newly unearthed Jimi Hendrix material, and the latest offering from Experience Hendrix L.L.C. and Legacy Recordings looks particularly enticing.
On November 20 the two companies are releasing the feature-length Jimi Hendrix documentary, Music, Money, Madness . . . Jimi Hendrix In Maui, as well as the accompanying album, Live In Maui, both of which capture the guitarist onstage on the Hawaiian island in 1970.
Five winners in total will be announced, with one grand prize winner receiving the guitar merch and vinyl and four runner-ups winning the vinyl box set.
Music, Money, Madness . . . Jimi Hendrix In Maui chronicles the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 1970 visit to the Hawaiian island, as well as how they became wrapped up in the bizarre Rainbow Bridge movie produced by Jimi’s manager, Michael Jeffery.
At the time, Hendrix was working with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy Cox on a follow-up to Electric Ladyland, and was also involved in building Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Jeffery secured a $500,000 advance from Warner Bros. to assist with the mounting costs associated with constructing the state-of-the-art recording facility.
At those same meetings, Jeffery convinced Warner Bros. executives to finance a film called Rainbow Bridge, in exchange for rights to its soundtrack album consisting of new Jimi Hendrix studio recordings. The film, centered around the idea of a “rainbow bridge” between the unenlightened and enlightened worlds, would be shot in Maui.
(Image credit: Fender)
The Experience was already booked to perform a concert in Honolulu at the H.I.C. Arena on August 1, 1970, and the film’s director, Chuck Wein, desperate to feature Hendrix in some capacity, devised a plan to film a free “color/sound vibratory experiment” on the lower slope of the dormant Haleakala volcano.
Word of mouth about a free Jimi Hendrix concert led a few hundred curious Maui locals to the Baldwin cattle ranch in Olinda where a makeshift stage was constructed and the audience was arranged by their astrological signs.
The performance captured the Jimi Hendrix Experience at the height of their power, playing two full sets against the natural backdrop.
“Jimi loved adventure and there was certainly no shortage of it during his time in Hawaii, a place he also loved,” said Janie Hendrix, who produced Music, Money, Madness . . . Jimi Hendrix In Maui alongside George Scott and direction John McDermott.
“The back story of Rainbow Bridge and these recordings paint a picture of Jimi’s uncanny ability to turn the bizarre into something amazing! We’re excited about this release because it gives the world a closer look at Jimi’s genius.”
The Blu-ray release includes the full documentary as well as bonus features featuring all of the existing 16mm color film shot of the two performances that afternoon, mixed in both stereo and 5.1 surround sound.
The film incorporates never before released original footage and new interviews with first-hand participants and key players such as Billy Cox, longtime Hendrix engineer Eddie Kramer, Warner Bros. executives and Rainbow Bridge director Chuck Wein and several cast members.
The package also includes Live In Maui, which features the two full Experience sets, with a track list that includes Foxey Lady, Purple Haze and Voodoo Child (Slight Return), as well as then-unreleased songs like Dolly Dagger and Freedom.
Live In Maui is being released on Blu-ray/two CDs on November 20 and Blu-ray/three vinyl LPs on December 11, with the music newly restored and mixed by Eddie Kramer and mastered by Bernie Grundman.
Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.
