Description
**THIS IS A VINYL LP**
Release Date: 2020
Label: Capitol
Track List
Side A
- Who Knows
- Machine Gun
Side B
- Changes
- Power To Love
- Message To Love
- We Gotta Live Together
Notes
Fillmore East performances from Jan. 1, 1970
All-analog mastering from the original stereo tapes by George Marino at Sterling Sound and longtime Hendrix engineer Eddie Kramer
Plated and pressed at Quality Record Pressings for superior sound!
Includes 8-page booklet and reprint of a classic Capitol Records poster!
Long hailed as a touchstone of blues, funk, fusion, and rock, Jimi Hendrix’s immortal 1970 live album Band of Gypsys — six live recordings captured on tape during two spectacular Fillmore East performances on January 1, 1970 — is getting a special 50th Anniversary Edition release to recapture the album’s boundry-breaking spirit.
Featuring Jimi Hendrix (guitar), Billy Cox (bass), and Buddy Miles (drums), Band Of Gypsys presents six of the most heralded live recordings in rock history including the classics, “Machine Gun,” “Who Knows,” “Message To Love,” and “We Gotta Live Together.” Available on 150-gram vinyl for the first time in the US. Includes 8-page booklet and reprint of a classic Capitol Records poster.
This new, all-analog edition of Band of Gypsys has been mastered from the original analog stereo tapes using parts mastered by the late great Sterling Sound engineer George Marino together with longtime Hendrix engineer Eddie Kramer, and is pressed on 150-gram black by vinyl by Quality Record Pressings. The edition is packaged with an eight-page booklet filled with rare images from the concerts and an essay by John McDermott. The special edition also features a 24″ x 36″ replica of Capitol Records’ original promotional Band of Gypsys poster.
Throughout the course of four extraordinary years, Jimi Hendrix placed his indelible stamp upon popular music with breathtaking velocity. Measured alongside his triumphs at Monterey Pop and Woodstock, Hendrix’s legendary Fillmore East concerts illustrated a critical turning point in a radiant career filled with indefinite possibilities. This artistic triumph captured here is now a stunning 150-gram reissue plated and pressed by no less than Quality Record Pressings, makers of the world’s finest-sounding LPs. QRP pressings are noted for their rich sonic detail and virtually silent playing surfaces, enabling lifelike playback.
“This is more than the commemoration of an anniversary,” says Janie Hendrix, president and CEO of Experience Hendrix. “That, of course, is something momentous, but it is also the celebration of a cathartic event in Jimi’s life…a sort of changing of the guards. He demonstrated that there was no limit to his musical landscape. It was broad and beautiful, and like the leader of a true band of gypsies, Jimi could go anywhere on the spectrum of genres and be at home there musically! This is our way of celebrating that part of Jimi’s journey.”
As the 1960s drew to a close, Hendrix was at the apex of his fame and influence. His first three albums with The Jimi Hendrix Experience — Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland — had established him as both a musical visionary and an international superstar. By the end of the decade, though, Hendrix was looking for new musical challenges and feeling the need to work with new collaborators. Toward that end, he assembled the Band of Gypsys lineup, with bassist Billy Cox, an old friend from Hendrix’s early days playing in R&B combos, and drummer Buddy Miles, already well known for his work with the Electric Flag and the Buddy Miles Express. The resulting album is a revolutionary fusion of blues, funk and rock that stands as a unique chapter in Hendrix’s seminal body of work.
Originally released in America on March 25, 1970, Band of Gypsys peaked at No. 5 during a 61-week run on the Billboard album chart. At the time of his death in September 1970, it was Hendrix’s bestselling U.S. album since Are You Experienced. The last album that Hendrix released during his lifetime, Band of Gypsys offers a tantalizing glimpse at what might have been.
