Legendary Guitarist Jimi Hendrix Never Before-Heard Recordings Are Releasing This November
Jimi Hendrix is who you think of when anyone thinks of the most innovative and influential guitarists in music history. Hendrix was truly groundbreaking in his visionary abilities to fuse together rock and blues to construct a psychedelia that completely redefined the expectations of what the electric guitar could do. Hendrix managed to elevate psychedelic music into a truly spiritual experience, particularly in his iconic performances. He passed tragically young, having only released three studio albums and one live album.
But his incredible legacy has led to the release of never-before-heard material in the Bold As Love sessions box set, releasing November 7. The box set focuses on work by The Jimi Hendrix Experience around the time that the 13-track record, Axis: Bold As Love, originally released in 1967, was written and recorded. The box set will include unreleased studio takes, demos, and even TV appearances. The new release is a wonderful reminder of how Hendrix’s genius has endured and that his music has a timeless impact.
The Legendary ‘Axis: Bold As Love’
The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s second studio album, Axis: As Bold As Love, was first released on December 1, 1967, and was quickly recognized as a great work of psychedelic rock. The record was put out quickly after the band’s debut, Are You Experienced, and proved that their prowess was more than a fluke. Axis: Bold As Love continued the creative flow with practically no break after the debut, with the band turning to the studio to record Axis: Bold As Love in May 1967, merely days after Are You Experienced was released that same month. Hendrix’s energy of going at immense speed without hitting the brakes is a pretty apt reflection of his expeditious career.
The album was recorded at Olympic Studios in London, where The Jimi Hendrix Experience were comfortable. They had partly recorded Are You Experienced There, and were keen to keep working in the setting with which they had become familiar. In June 1967 the band returned to the US for their legendary appearance at Monterey International Pop Festival, the one where Hendrix set fire to his guitar. After some additional sessions in New York and Los Angeles, where previously hidden demos were recorded, The Jimi Hendrix Experience returned to London to complete Axis: Bold As Love.
Axis: Bold As Love expanded naturally but greatly on the debut by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, exploring genres more loosely and freely to capture more of a spirit than a sense of restricted categorization. The music on Axis is characterized by music critic Jim DeRogatis as “looser, jazzier, and more expansive.” The record peaked at number five and spent 16 weeks on the charts, with other critics citing it as “the refinement of white noise into psychedelia … the finest voodoo album that any rock group has produced to date”. Rolling Stone also ranked Axis: Bold as Love number 92 on its 2020 list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”
What The New Release of ‘Bold As Love’ Has Got Going On
Almost sixty years after the initial release of Axis: Bold As Love, Experience Hendrix L.L.C. and Legacy Recordings, are releasing a new collection, Bold As Love, to celebrate the album. The collection is “available as either a five vinyl LP plus Blu-ray, or four CD plus Blu-ray set. The deluxe box set includes the original stereo and mono mixes of Axis: Bold As Love remastered from the original mixes.” It’s incredibly exciting for all Hendrix fans, and it’s not just a fancy reissue. “The box set presents an additional 40 alternative versions, unreleased studio takes, demos, live tracks and television appearances from the album’s gestation and recording period, 28 of which have never-before-seen the light of day.”
The remasters on the record have been completed by Janie Hendrix, Jimi’s sister, original producer Chas Chandler, original sound engineer Eddie Kramer, and John McDermott. It’s pretty incredible that so many original team members are able to reignite their previous work, and also a testament to how young they were when the original work was produced. They were visionaries, and it’s genuinely exciting that they can still contribute after such pioneering work in the ‘60s.
Almost sixty years on, Axis: Bold As Love remains as iconic as it was upon its 1967 release. The new insight into unreleased demos and live sessions will be a great opportunity to understand how Hendrix’s mind worked in the studio. This will, perhaps, simultaneously be the answer to questions about his mysterious genius or only further deepen curiosity into the new insight into how he operated. Either way, it’s super exciting that they will be available, and a great celebration of a pivotal moment in rock history.
