West Coast Seattle Boy
It's amazing (and a little macabre) that someone who's been dead for 40 years has a "new" release upcoming but that's the way the business works I guess.

On Nov 16 there will be a "new" Hendrix anthology box set (4 CDs and 1 DVD) released. The title is West Coast Seattle Boy.

This will have the best of Hendrix's session work with King Curtis, Little Richard, The Isley Brothers and others as well as various unreleased Hendrix demos, alternate or acoustic versions, live performances, or new songs entirely. Most of this was never officially released. The DVD includes more performance footage, a documentary and other visual memorabilia. Bootsy Collins, who of course did and does a great Hendrix impersonation (he made it part of his act for years), will be reading and narrating the documentary portions.

I suppose if you are a guitar or Hendrix junkie it might be worth picking up. I already ordered mine...
It has more live performances from the 1970 Fillmore East Band of Gypsys show so I needed to have that.
Hendrix left no official heirs so I guess whatever profits come from this go to his step sister Janie. She won the fight with her relative, Hendrix's brother Leon, a few years back.

New Hendrix Release

Scrape, scrape...I hear the bottom of the barrel being plumbed again.
I am a long, long term devotee of the great Jimi and I own nearly all his vinyl, CDs and videos. But most of the recent stuff has been strictly exploitation. The most recent audi, "Valleys of Neptune," isn't bad, mind--but everything that's on it has been released before, and in better versions. The last really good Hendrix archival stuff was the multi-CD "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" (2000).
I think some Curtis Knight material was released shortly after his death, called "Flashing." Thumbs down.

You're probably right, but there is unreleased stuff from the Fillmore East concert and I'd have to have that. I liked the Band of Gypsys. I know a lot of people gave them mixed reviews but I think they were ahead of their time. Mitch Mitchell was more Elvin Jones while Buddy Miles was more Bernard Purdie/John Bonham. I like both drumming styles. It would have been interesting if Hendrix had gone the dual drummer route.

Noel Redding on the other hand I did not like as a bassist. So I'm always happy to hear anything with Billy Cox. He has no problem staying in the bottom register while Redding always wanted to turn up the treble. There's lots of stories where Hendrix would "suggest" to Redding that Redding go have a pint and when he got back Jimi had overdubbed all of his bass lines.

And there is a studio version of "Mastermind" with Larry Lee and Hendrix doing dual lead guitars.

So it might be a dud and just a way to put more $$$ in Janie's pockets but Hendrix is my kryptonite and I'm a completist..

For this Hendrix fan's money, his best was the Berkeley concert in 1970. You can get this on DVD, and it's indispensable. The filming isn't great, but it provides the best view extant of Jimi's incredible technique. A lot of people thought his sound was a combination of drugs and improv. But you can see in the Berkeley video that every note--every single harmonic--was deliberately placed. He made it look so easy, so second-nature, that it seems as if his brain was wired to his amplified.

When my son was an adolescent, I dropped him off at a Van Halen concert. When I asked about it, he replied, "Eddie blew Jimi away." Almost threw him out of the car. Then I bought the Berkeley concert (on VHS) and showed it to him. After that, my son stopped touting Eddie.

Ok, four CD's and DVD from someone who was widely considered to be the greatest guitarist who ever walked the planet (not that I really believe in "greatest" anything when it comes to art and music), what's not to like?

This must be the Holy Grail. Yes? Everyone should run out and get this, right?

Well, yes and no.
First off let's talk about what this release isn't. Unlike say How the West was Won by Led Zeppelin or Agartha by Miles Davis this is emphatically NOT a cohesive set of concert recordings or a fabled lost album that was never released because of an evil record company or backstabbing manager.

So if you are just a casual fan or have never heard Hendrix this release is simply not for you-either because of the music released or the price (more on that later). Move on......

If you are still reading then you must be a hardcore Hendrix fan or an obsessive completist or some combination of the two.

If you are the the first type of person then this release could be nice to have but I'm not sure it's drop everything and go buy it now. It might depend on the price. It opened at $69 on Amazon and is now fluctuating between $47 and $53. The stripped down version can be had for between $13 and $20.

If you are the second type of person then obviously you will get it no matter what I write but at least pick it up used.

Ok, enough caution, what about the music?
Again that depends.

CD1
This features Hendrix as a sideman to early and mix sixties Black American rock-n-roll/R&B stars. If you happen to like this sort of music (and I do) then you will enjoy hearing Hendrix play on cuts by Little Richard, The Isley Brothers, Don Covay, Rosa Lee Brooks, King Curtis and more. If on the other hand you don't know who The Contours were and aren't interested in the differences between The Rivingtons and the Five Du-Tones, this CD will mostly leave you cold. Standouts include an intense Hendrix solo on the Isley Brothers' "Have you ever been disappointed" that is reminiscent of Duane Allman's later similar solo on "Please lend me a dime" and Hendrix's riff on Ray Sharpe's "Help me Get the Feeling", which was later sold to Atlantic, scrubbed of Hendrix's guitar and reworked by Aretha Franklin into "Save Me".

ALL of this HAS been released before so YMMV. There is no a-ha Rosetta Stone moment here but you can hear how Hendrix's "one-man band" approach to guitar and his facility at playing in keys normally associated with horn or piano players came about.

CD2
This CD focuses on Hendrix's early work with The Experience.
Just about everything on this CD has been released before in some form. These are alternate versions, Hendrix doing a song completely solo, and acoustic versions. Hendrix had a very heavy Dylan influence and this is seen in his amazing cover of "Tears of Rage", which almost makes this release worthwhile for it alone. Other good work includes a acoustic guitar rendition of "1983", "Little One" (not Little Wing) and a guitar/harmonica version of "Hear my Train A-coming".

CD3
This CD covers the transition from the Experience to the Band of Gypsies or as I like to think of it from a frustrated guitarist trying and failing to play bass (Redding) to an actual bassist (Cox).

This CD is all over the place musically. There is more unreleased stuff here. This includes "Hear my Freedom" with Lee Michaels on organ, live concerts with the Experience from the LA Forum, and incredible 20 minute fusion jam with Larry Young on organ (only an 8 minute edited version was released previously).

Unfortunately this also includes "Mastermind" with Hendrix buddy Larry Lee on rhythm guitar and lead vocals. Sorry Mr.Lee but if I'm gonna call Redding out for being allergic to holding down the bottom, I have to take you to task for not being able to sing. At all. It's kind of important to be in the proper key and stay in tune. Yikes. This was the only cut that I stopped listening to and pressed next. He was that bad.

CD4
This last CD is mostly Band of Gypsies and then the later reconstituted band with Cox and Mitchell and without Miles.
Again, most of what's heard here is alternate takes, extended concert versions, and out of nowhere a few songs that were never heard before which Hendrix was working on at the time of his passing. The CD also includes a long version of "Everlasting First", a song with Love frontman Arthur Lee on vocals. Standouts include "Suddenly November Morning", "Peter Gunn" and "All God's Children".

Final call
In print Jaime Hendrix (Hendrix's step sister) and the executor of his estate has said there's enough material in the vaults to release at least one CD every 12-18 months for the next decade. While I guess that's good for her bank account and future plans I sorta wish that they'd just release all the good stuff now. There's actually a live Band of Gypsies studio jam that I have on cassette tape (taped off radio) as well as a Experience concert in Germany that I was hoping would be on this release. Oh well.

So it is worth it?
To me yes, but I would advise others to please get it used/half price/quarter price-even if you are a Hendrix fanatic. If you're not, don't spend your money on this.

VERY erudite review, Lilo! Thanks!
I'm gonna take your advice and wait on this.

Nice review, Lilo. Maybe I'll just borrow it from the library before I decide on buying it .

It's interesting that none of Jimi's live recordings was released during his lifetime. The first posthumous release, "Cry of Love," was studio stuff, not very impressive. But the next, "Hendrix in the West," was all live stuff (including two from the legendary Berkeley concert) and was a dazzling revelation to me. I'd always been awed by what Jimi did in the studio, but I couldn't imagine that he was even better live. Then I got the VHS (later DVD) of the Berkeley concert. I liked to have Hendrix fans come over, and I'd play "Johnny B. Good" from the West album, and they'd all think that Jimi was playing at about 1,000 mph. Then I'd show them the video--and he was just waving his hands over the strings, playing with his teeth and behind his neck, wobbling the whang bar--it was as if his brain was wired directly to his Marshalls. Unforgettable!

TB, do you have these CD's?

Rainbow Bridge Concert
Hendrix live at Maui with Cox/Mitchell. The sound quality is not as good as the Band of Gypsies Fillmore concert but then again there is no Buddy Miles singing either. Two CD release. There are some slight tuning problems here or there but overall it's better than I expected.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
This has 3 cuts *only two different ones* with Hendrix and Band of Gypsies and Hendrix with Experience. It's live in studio recordings. Songs done are "Little Drummer Boy/Silent Night/Auld Lang Syne/Three Little Bears. This has a GREAT sound and features Hendrix on all cuts with a very round, bassy full tone (i.e. "Who Knows/Machine Gun" )which I tend to prefer. Very feedback-y if that is a word.


Morning Symphony Ideas
I wasn't too crazy about this at first and on repeated listens I'm still not although it's not per se bad music. This is sort of Hendrix's equivalent of Zappa's "Shut up and play your guitar" release. It is a bunch of jams and solos, mostly with just Buddy Miles and no bassist. You can hear bits and pieces of other songs (In from the Storm, Midnight Lightning,Freedom) within but this is really just Hendrix stretching out to the ultimate with no filter and loose structure.

He is also using mostly clean tones here- little distortion and no midrange snarl. The Steve Cropper/Curtis Mayfield/Jimmy Nolen/Bobby Womack influences are brought to the front. If you can deal with 30 minutes of what occasionally might be described as wanking (and that's just the first cut) this might be the release for you. Live in studio. No overdubs. You can also hear flamenco, a few classical and proto-reggae stylings.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience Box Set
Four CD's -mostly with the Experience but a few with BOG. For me the highlights included a live-in-studio version of "Bold as Love", a live version of "I don't live today" that showed Mitchell knew his way around the tom-toms, an alternate even funkier studio version of "Izabella" and a never released version of the national anthem which would make you swear he was using a synthesizer.

I have "Rainbow Bridge" on vinyl, which contains "Hear My Train a'Coming" from the Berkeley concert, imo Jimi's best live recording. I also have "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" boxed set, which has enough excellent stuff to merit the purchase. There's a wonderful instrumental version of "Bold as Love," which on "Axis: Bold as Love" is my favorite studio Hendrix.

Also on vinyl: "The Cry of Love" (first posthumous release, so-so), and "Hendrix in the West" (all live, first live recordings released, absolutely a must), and "The Concerts" (Randalls Island, NYC, some very good stuff). Another boxed set: "Stages," which has too many versions of "Purple Haze" and "Foxy Lady" intermixed with some good stuff. And, "Radio One," "Blues," "Woodstock" and the two "Band of Gypsies." Plus I downloaded "Valleys of Neptune" from Apple (not worth it).

Some of these were "official" bootlegs released before the family got control back but Radioactive Records has at least two Hendrix releases
Blues at Midnight and Studio Outtakes (1966-1970). The second one has some of the material that ended up on Valleys of Neptune. It also has a pretty good version of Stepping Stone (recorded without bass but it's not really missed b/c Buddy is hitting the bass drum so hard). Blues at Midnight is a little dodgier.The sound quality is not good. It is Hendrix live with Paul Butterfield's band on different nights. Special guests include BB King and Ted Nugent.

There is also something called Studio Haze, much of which was also released on Valleys of Neptune , but which includes a few instrumentals not found anywhere else AFAIK. There is also Jimi Hendrix Are you Experienced Sessions vol2 -don't buy this as it is almost completely flubs, mistakes, miscues, and then the 2nd Atlanta International Pop Festival , which is live, decent -and VERY loud-but nothing special though it does include versions of Hear My Train a coming, Gloria and The Stars that Play with Laughing Sam's Dice.

Lilo, have you ever been (not to Electric Ladyland) but to the Experience Music Project in Seattle? A must for any Hendrix fan. Alas, when I was there, their lead video was Jimi's disastrous "Watchtower" from the Altanta concert.

I've not been there, TB. Sounds like I need to make the trek.

"When my son was an adolescent, I dropped him off at a Van Halen concert. When I asked about it, he replied, "Eddie blew Jimi away." Almost threw him out of the car."

you're my hero.

also, the boxed set is amazing. sometimes when you're a jimi fan, you can't help but get excited even about the scraps at the bottom of the barrel. because it's just been sooo long and even now, no one can touch him. so it's nice to feel like it's something new, ya know?

pp