Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsys (1970)

After his now legendary Woodstock performance, Jimi Hendrix was left to figure out what to do next. Performing with the short-lived Gypsy, Sun and Rainbows, a much larger ensemble than he had ever performed with, Hendrix's iconic set included new songs such as "Message to Love" and "Izabella", the first hint audiences got of new material since the  Electric Ladyland LP was released in October 1968. However, this new band was nothing more than a temporary experiment for Jimi, who for a long time wished to go beyond the power trio format. This specific was one of the reasons Experience bassist Noel Redding, who already had a fractured relationship with the guitarist, left the band, to be replaced by Billy Cox. His management, keen on using the well-established Jimi Hendrix Experience name, would carry on pressuring Hendrix to reform the band until his death, with him never conceding to it. Pressure also came from his label, Reprise Records, concerned with the fact that a year had gone by since his last album and he didn't seem to be anywhere near delivering a new one. He didn't seem preoccupied, recording at a leisurely pace, jamming with his friend Buddy Miles, drummer of The Electric Flag, and recording embryonary versions of new songs and assorted jams. However, this would change significantly once an event from the past and its consequences came to light.

In October 1965, while he was still a backing musician to Curtis Knight, Jimi signed to a three-year deal to PPX Enterprises and its owner, Ed Chalpin. That means that Hendrix was in breach of it by recording with Reprise Records, which led to Chalpin suing Jimi, with the case being settled out of court after two years with the agreement that the guitarist would deliver an album of original material to Capitol Records in order to fulfill his PPX contract. With the deal in mind, Hendrix then formed the Band of Gypsys with Cox and Miles, his first all-black band, and started writing and recording new material with the new trio, starting on November 1969. Having decided a live album was the easiest way of fulfilling his commitment, they were then booked for four engagements at New York's Fillmore East, with all four being recorded and becoming the legendary Band of Gypsys album, capturing their funky sound in all of its glory. This November 1969/February 1970 period was also Jimi's first of focused studio recording since Electric Ladyland came out, with nearly an album's worth of releasable recordings being made by the Hendrix/Miles/Cox trio, many of which became serious contenders for his unfinished First Rays of the New Rising Sun album. But what if he wasn't tied up to Capitol and could focus on releasing the best album possible with the material and band he had at hand?

This reconstruction provides us with an updated version of my previous Band of Gypsys studio album, three years on from my first attempt at this. Taking a cue from Jimi's rivals and contemporaries Cream, this will be a half-live, half-studio double album, an approach I find manages to group together the best recordings the Hendrix/Miles/Cox trio ever did better than fully fledged live or studio albums. So apt is the comparison with Cream's Wheels of Fire that the live material in both was even recorded at the same venue, meaning we won't even change the names given to both discs: In the Studio and Live at the Fillmore. As far as the studio part goes, even though Jimi had already recorded with Buddy and Billy in June 1969, the Band of Gypsys didn't become a real entity until October 1969 at the earliest. Because of that, we will be focusing on material recorded between November 1969 and February 1970, selecting the most finished-sounding songs available from the time period when the BOG was active. Songs overdubbed at later dates are still fair game, as long as the basic track was recorded then and the finished product still features Buddy Miles on drums. As for the live disc, we will try to keep the original Band of Gypsys album as intact as we possibly can, only replacing songs when a superior studio take exists for use in the studio disc. Here's what the album looks like:

Disc 1: In the Studio

Power of Soul (Both Sides of the Sky)

Lover Man (Both Sides of the Sky)

Room Full of Mirrors (Rainbow Bridge)

Stepping Stone (Voodoo Child)

Izabella (Voodoo Child)

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Ezy Ryder (The Cry of Love)

Message to Love (West Coast Seattle Boy)

Earth Blues (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

Burning Desire (Loose Ends)

Disc 2: Live at the Fillmore

Who Knows (Band of Gypsys)

Machine Gun (Band of Gypsys)

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Them Changes (Band of Gypsys)

Hear My Train a-Comin' (Band of Gypsys)

We Gotta Live Together (Band of Gypsys)

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Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsys (1970)

Hendrix, Miles, and Cox performing live at the Fillmore East, December 31st, 1969.

Taking a cue from the first Band of Gypsys show at the Fillmore East, we open the studio album with "Power of Soul". Mixed on August 22nd, 1970 on one of Jimi's final mixing sessions, this is the definitive version of one of the highlights of the shortlived trio's stage act, as recorded at the Record Plant in January 1970. As on New Year's Eve, "Lover Man" follows, a song that was in Jimi's live rotation since 1967 but was never released in an album. While the definitive version of the song was recorded with Mitch Mitchell in 1970, this take from December 15, 1969 is no slouch, fitting in well with the more finished material. Up next is "Room Full of Mirrors", a song that dates back to the Electric Ladyland era, but was only recorded successfully in November 1969, in the version we find here. As with "Power of Soul", an authentic August 1970 Hendrix mix of the song exists, and it's that version that makes it to the album. Closing out the first side is both halves of a shelved single, which was supposed to be issued on April 1970: "Stepping Stone" and "Izabella". Recorded in December and January, they would have been the first studio releases to feature the Band of Gypsys and credit them as such, and the fact that Jimi himself mixed the two songs and greenlit them for release gives us a nice glimpse of what this album would sound like, had he mixed the rest of the material then.

Opening side two we have a trio of songs that were mixed during Jimi's final mixing sessions of August 1970: "Ezy Ryder", "Message of Love" and "Earth Blues", all three recorded between December and January at the Record Plant. We again take a cue from the famous first Fillmore performance when it comes to sequencing, grouping "Ezy Ryder" and "Earth Blues" close together near the end of the album and adding "Message to Love" in place of a cover version. Closing out the studio disc is "Burning Desire", recorded in a single take in December 18, 1969. As the only real studio version of this song doesn't feature lead vocals, and this nine-minute rehearsal is an amazing take, we will be adding it to the album. Here, it serves the same purpose as "Voodoo Chile" served in Electric Ladyland: the epic of the album, performed live in the studio without overdubs. And as for the live half of this reconstruction, we will be replacing "Power of Soul" and "Message to Love", both of which were added to the studio half, with one of Jimi's best-ever live performances: "Hear My Train a-Comin'", from the first Fillmore show. Another song that was unreleased at the time, it fits like a glove among the rest of the album. Given how iconic the Band of Gypsys album has become over the years, it feels wrong to mess with it any further, with the inclusion of "Hear My Train a-Comin'" being the only change we'll make to it.

Our expanded Band of Gypsys manages to capture both the fantastic, funky live side of the band and the intricate studio work JH was creating with their help, creating what would end up being a very commercially successful album, and given the sheer strength of the material seen within these four sides, critical success is almost a given as well. With the exception of two live-in-the-studio songs, the entirety of disc one consists of authentic Hendrix mixes, which is quite an impressive feat when it comes to Jimi's fourth album. For a couple of songs, earlier Hendrix mixes from February exist, but the fact that they don't sound that great and that Jimi kept on tinkering with them made me use the final mixes he made. Both discs are around 40 minutes long and the original, iconic Band of Gypsys artwork is kept. "Stepping Stone"/"Izabella" is still the album's lead single, respecting Hendrix's original vision. 1969 was a transitional year for Jimi, where he found himself for the first time without a band and searching for a new musical direction. And as far as transitional albums go, it can't get much better than putting together a supergroup with a few friends and dishing out some of the best songs the nascent genre of Funk Rock had ever seen. It's just a shame that only half of Jimi's vision was released before his death, and the general public couldn't witness the power of soul through the lens of Hendrix's guitar.

Sources:
- Ultimate Hendrix: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Live Concerts and Sessions

- Jimi Hendrix's unfinished fourth studio album [Thread]