Experience Hendrix: The Best Of Jimi Hendrix CD

Personnel: Jimi Hendrix (vocals, guitar, flute, kazoo, piano, harpsichord, glockenspiel, bass); Dave Mason (acoustic guitar, background vocals); Noel Redding (bass, background vocals); Billy Cox (bass); Mitch Mitchell (drums, percussion); Graham Nash (feet).
Producers include: Chas Chandler, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Kramer, Mitch Mitchell, John Jansen.
Compilation producer: Janie Hendrix, John McDermott.
Engineers: Dave Siddle, Eddie Kramer, Mike Ross.
THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE [BOX] consists principally of previously unreleased alternate takes & mixes, studio demos and live tracks, and comes with an 80-page booklet.
Personnel includes: Jimi Hendrix (vocals, guitar, harpsichord, bass); Larry Lee (guitar); Paul Caruso (harmonica); Larry Young (organ); Billy Cox, Noel Redding (bass, background vocals); Buddy Miles, Mitch Mitchell (drums, percussion, background vocals); Juma Sulton, Jerry Velez (percussion); Graham Nash, Andy Fairweather Low, Steve Winwood, Chris Wood, Arthur & Albert Allen, Chas Chandler, Gary Walker, The Ronettes, Roger Chapman (background vocals).
Producers: Jimi Hendrix, Rune Hallberg, Chas Chandler, Lou Adler.
Compilation producers: Janie Hendrix, Eddie Kramer, John McDermott.
Engineers include: Eddie Kramer, RTE, Gary Kellgren.
Includes liner notes by Dave Marsh & John McDermott.
Digitally remastered by Eddie Kramer & George Marino (Sterling Sound, New York, New York).
Containing interviews with the legendary guitarist as well as with the Experience's drummer and bassist Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, EXPERIENCE also includes live recordings of one of Jimi Hendrix's final performances, at London's Albert Hall.
The Hendrix family continues its reissue campaign with the release of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, a lavish four-disc box set that should be a boon to Hendrix collectors everywhere. With a beautiful 80-page booklet, and purporting to have 46 unreleased tracks, further inspection actually reveals less than meets the eye, at least for collectors.
The problem is that real collectors have already heard most of this material, and not only through bootleg sources. Many of the previously unreleased tracks are just new mixes of live tracks that were issued as part of Stages, Live at Monterey, and Lifelines. Also included is a new mix of the "Gloria" single. While the sound quality is somewhat better (handled by the expert Eddie Kramer), the new mixes do not differ substantially from the earlier versions. With the inclusion of virtually all of In the West, and a few quality tracks from Rainbow Bridge and Crash Landing (without the wretched mid-'70s overdubs), The Jimi Hendrix Experience almost seems like a shelf-clearing exercise, taking care of the leftover tracks that fans have been clamoring for en masse.
Other tracks have been available on bootleg recordings but have been lovingly remixed by Kramer. "Taking Care of No Business," a great tune similar in feel to "My Friend," has been stripped of the posthumous horn overdubs that marred the first appearances of this song. "Country Blues" and "It's Too Bad" (a slow blues with organist Larry Young) are quality studio jams that sound great with a proper mixing job.
The real highlights of the set are the early studio outtakes, presumably from the cache that Chas Chandler withheld from Alan Douglas for so many years. (You'll recall that Douglas claimed complete control of Hendrix's recorded legacy until that was overturned in 1995 and reverted to Al Hendrix.) Some of these tracks are versions recorded prior to the version that ended up being released, giving an interesting glimpse into the evolution of some of Hendrix's songs, in some cases, like "Room Full of Mirrors," differing drastically from the known release. Other tunes are alternate mixes ("Purple Haze," "If Six Was Nine") that give indications of the type of studio experimentation that Hendrix, Kramer, and Chandler were undertaking. "Little Wing" and "Bold As LoRolling Stone (9/28/00, p.54) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...The Rolls Royce of posthumous Hendrix sets....a vivid telling of a remarkable life in motion....with a windfall of stage and studio rarities..."
Entertainment Weekly (12/1/00, p.100) - "...These songs are so durable, and the differences between these and preexistent versions so irresistible...that before long you've fallen under their spell once more..." - Rating: B+
Q (12/00, p.143) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Fine and dandy....these are all-weather pop songs, full of flash but never outstaying their welcome..."
Q (11/00, p.130) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...The kind of thing that completists would pawn the wife's jewellery for....much more than just a bunch of out-takes....Out of this world."
Uncut (10/00, p.82) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...One is left reeling by the sheer quantity of ground-breaking stuff packed into so brief a time. The best of this music is pure incandescence, and no one wanting to get the measure of Jimi Hendrix should be without it..."
Mojo (Publisher) (10/00, pp.116-7) - "...For anyone interested in Hendrix and the '60s...it is mandatory....Mutable, fiery, expansive, Hendrix rarely played anything the same way twice..."