Jimi Hendrix – Nine To The Universe
Jimi Hendrix – Drone Blues
Jimi Hendrix – Jimi/Jimmy Jam
Seems fitting today, on the 69th anniversary of the birth of Jimi Hendrix, to feature music from the master. Hendrix is a really important artist for me. His guitar playing is almost universally recognized as the best the planet has known, but Jimi for me was so much more than simply a guitarist. Jimi was an artist who broke down barriers and explored sound far beyond what many of his contemporaries were interested in achieving. I fell into Hendrix’s music at a young age, “borrowing” some of his cassettes from my brother. Hendrix’s music, along with a handful of others, helped me define my own identity and helped me to push for something more than just what was expected me in this society as a young black man.
I originally heard “Jimi/Jimmy Jam” from this album on WREK’s Stonehenge back when I was in high school. I’d always loved just the sound of Hendrix’s guitar and appreciated the limited amount of instrumentals that had come my way up til then. Nine To The Universe is one of the posthumous releases that have proved controversial because of the heavy-handed techinques of producer Alan Douglas. Unlike Crash Landing and Midnight Lightning, both of which featured a lot of overdubs from musicians that Hendrix never even played with, Nine To Universe features just the original players, with minimal interference from Douglas. Aside from an unnamed tambourine player that he added, this music features the musicians that were in the studio with Jimi when these loose jams were originally performed.
In recent years some of the full takes of these tracks (Young/Hendrix, Jimi/Jimmy Jam & Drone Blues) have been featured on a couple of Hendrix family releases. Having heard them, I actually think this LP is one of the rare instances where Douglas’ production is actually pretty good. Instead of 20 – 25+ jams, we have tracks that are more or less cut in half, but that sound like complete songs and are much more focused. It gives us a glimpse into Hendrix’s free-wheeling jam sessions (though, almost unbelievably, there is likely STILL more unreleased music, including performances with guitarist John McLaughlin), music that was only made for the musicians benefit, never to be released on record.
That loose nature is one of the things that makes “Nine To The Universe” such an amazing track, with a riff that will later on become “Earth Blues,” the song breaks down part of the way through into a nice Buddy Miles drum solo with Jimi in the background yelling out things like “Lord Have Mercy” and closing up with what sounds like completely improvised lyrics that might have later served as inspiration for “Message to Love” or “Power of Soul”. “Drone Blues” is one of the fastest & funkiest things Jimi ever laid down and the track that led me to this LP, “Jimi/Jimmy Jam,” with the severely under-rated Jim McCarty (of the equally under-rated Cactus, along with Mitch Ryder & his Detroit Wheels and Buddy Miles’ Express) is just plain epic.
Also intriguing are the liner notes that mention the directions Jimi wanted to take his music, influenced by Miles Davis and my personal hero Rahsaan Roland Kirk. My mind can’t fully comprehend exactly how amazing those collaborations would have sounded. Part of me hopes, against all reason, that somewhere there is some lost jam session between Jimi & Rahsaan. They would have made beautiful music together, but thankfully they left us with many beautiful bright moments to marvel at years and years after their days on this earth were done. For that I am sincerely thankful…
Cheers,
Michael