Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Creative Explorations’ From 1969 Returning to Vinyl
Two LPs’ worth of Jimi Hendrix‘s rare instrumental studio recordings will be available as the new “official bootleg” Hear My Music on November 28th as part of Record Store Day’s Black Friday event. The music comprises the guitar icon’s “creative explorations,” according to the label putting it out, that he recorded in the first half of 1969 both as solo demos and as free-form group jams with the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Among the 11 tracks are two versions of “Valleys of Neptune,” including one featuring Hendrix solo on electric guitar and the other spotlighting his piano playing, and unedited versions of “Drone Blue” and “Jimi”/”Jimmy Jam,” which both originally came out on the now out-of-print 1980 release Nine to the Universe.
The double album, which Hendrix’s sister Janie Hendrix produced with engineer Eddie Kramer and Hendrix expert John McDermott, will be pressed on 200-gram audiophile vinyl. It is coming out on Dagger Records, Experience Hendrix LLC’s “bootleg” label, which usually does not release albums to brick-and-mortar retailers.
In other Hendrix album news, the posthumous releases The Cry of Love and Rainbow Bridge, which both came out in 1971, were both reissued this year as newly remastered CD, LP and digital releases. It marked the first time the latter record was available as an official CD. Additionally, the rights to 88 studio recordings Hendrix made with the R&B group Curtis Knight, prior to his ascent to fame, have been awarded to Experience Hendrix LLC and will be coming out as a proper release at an as-yet-unannounced date.
Hear My Music track list:
Side A
“Slow Version”
“Drone Blues”
“Blues Jam at Olympic”
Side B
“Jimi”/”Jimmy Jam”
Side C
“Ezy Ryder”/”Star-Spangled Banner”
“Trash Man”
Side D
“Jam 292”
“Message to Love”
“Gypsy Blood”
“Valleys of Neptune [Guitar]”
“Valleys of Neptune [Piano]”