Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys live album was his first project after the three albums as the leader of the Jimi Hendrix Experience – and the last album released before his death in March 1970.
Recorded at the Fillmore East in New York, Band of Gypsys has been issued and reissued in many track configurations over the years, including with several previously unreleased performances coming out in dribs and drabs on various posthumous collections.
The Band of Gypsys was not so much an official group as the first major project Hendrix embarked on after the release of the final Experience studio album Electric Ladyland in 1968. The historic performance by Hendrix that closed the Woodstock festival in August 1969 presages the official Band of Gypsys lineup. That lineup included Hendrix, future Band of Gypsys member Billy Cox on bass and Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, along with Larry Lee, Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez.
Hendrix had grown tired of Noel Redding’s bass playing in the Experience, and the Woodstock set was the first major live exposure Cox received. Redding had already taken his own tentative steps away from the Experience when he formed Fat Mattress in 1968. His group actually opened for the Experience on tour, with Redding playing in both bands. Fat Mattress recorded two albums and Redding officially departed after their debut.
Capitol released the official first Band of Gypsys album in America in March 1970, as part of a contractual obligation that stemmed from a managerial dispute Jimi Hendrix had prior to forming the Experience. That initial album was only drawn from shows that Hendrix, Cox and drummer Buddy Miles recorded on Jan. 1, 1970.
The expanded new box set Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts takes in performances from Dec. 31, 1969 as well, featuring all 43 songs in their original sequence on either 5 CDs or 8 LPs. Included are nine previously unreleased tracks, as well as three longer unedited performances – and four that have only ever appeared in concert films. There are also 10 specially remixed songs that have been out of print for a decade.
Pioneering remote sound engineer Wally Heider recorded the concerts. Eddie Kramer mixed the original recordings and produced the initial album with Jimi Hendrix. Kramer also engineered these new tracks. Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts is produced by Kramer, John McDermott and Janie Hendrix, Jimi’s sister. The Voices of East Harlem were the opening act both nights. Ticket prices back then were $6.
The musical style of Band of Gypsys was very different from the Experience. Bassist Billy Cox, who was an Army buddy of Hendrix’s, cut his teeth playing with blues legends Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and Etta James. Drummer Buddy Miles had played with Wilson Pickett.
Many people either forgot or did not know that Jimi Hendrix had spent years as a backing guitarist on the soul circuit in bands such as the Isley Brothers, and even with Little Richard. This collective background and the influence of the burgeoning funk scene brought more soulful rhythms into the music of Hendrix’s new band, but the sound was still pretty heavy.
Hendrix also had a history with Buddy Miles prior to this project. Miles played on two tracks on Electric Ladyland: “Rainy Day, Dream Away” and “Still Raining, Still Dreaming.” Hendrix first met Miles when they were only 16 in 1964. They hang out on tour, playing as sidemen in separate bands. Hendrix and Miles reconnected in 1967, at one of the infamous jam sessions at the Malibu home of Stephen Stills. Hendrix then wrote a poem for the liner notes of the debut Buddy Miles Express album, 1968’s Expressway to Your Skull, and went on to produce four tracks for the group’s next album Electric Church, released in 1969.
The first set on Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts does not include any of the songs that appeared on the three Experience albums. As good as this performance sounds, it’s almost like a soundcheck/warm-up and tentative experiment for this new group and style. Hendrix was very happy with the first set, and relieved after the early show. As the two nights and four sets evolved, Hendrix and the band loosened up considerably and he felt comfortable mixing in music from his past.
Performances of “Stone Free,” “Foxey Lady,” “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” and “Purple Haze” which originally appeared on the Experience studio albums are included on the later discs, as well as songs the Experience played live, but which did not appear on the group’s original three studio albums – including “Lover Man,” “Hear My Train A Comin'” and “Bleeding Heart.” “Message to Love,” “Izabella” and part of an earlier incarnation of “Stepping Stone” had already surfaced at the Woodstock concert.
There was also a cover of “Stop,” a minor hit for R&B singer Howard Tate. The real highlights on Songs For Groovy Children, though, are the new songs Jimi Hendrix wrote after disbanding the Experience: “Power of Soul,” “Machine Gun,” “Ezy Ryder,” “Earth Blues,” “Burning Desire” and “Who Knows”. It is also important to note the inclusion of two compositions written by Buddy Miles: “We Gotta Live Together,” a loose jam, and “Changes,” a signature song for Miles and one he would record live again with Carlos Santana under the title “Them Changes,” which became a turntable FM hit in the early ’70s. Miles would name his 1970 debut solo album Them Changes.
The Band of Gypsys project has received mixed reviews over the years. Criticism focused on alleged under-rehearsal, sound problems at times and Jimi Hendrix himself – who some say had lost interest near the end of the two-night run, and had already moved on to other musical ideas once the shows were over. Others have also claimed that management wanted the Band of Gypsys to break up in order to bring about a Jimi Hendrix Experience reunion, discouraging Hendrix from pursuing this new trio in further concerts and recordings.
Hendrix continued to work on his Electric Ladyland studio, record new music and did two major tours before he died in September 1970. Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts gives fans a chance to fully imagine, like never before, the end the world-changing 1960s while also experiencing a new group led by Jimi Hendrix.
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