Jimi Hendrix Tuesday night PBS American Masters

[No Pride]

Yeah, they didn't play a whole lot off that album, unfortunately.

The problem is that they practically never rehearsed except when they learned the tunes for the studio recordings. They were probably too busy playing gigs and flying from one place to another to bone up on those tunes.

Man, Mitch Mitchell was insane, eh?

I still have fairly vivid memories of listening to "Are You Experienced?" for the first time. I was almost as impressed with the drumming as I was with the guitar playing. Mitch was likely one of my gateways to jazz, as his playing had more to do with Elvin Jones than Jon Bonham.

[rapidfirerob]

I saw Mitch with Jack Bruce and Friends at The Fillmore East (Larry Coryell, Mike Mandel) open for Mountain, my only trip to the venue. Great drummer.

[Gladiator1634]

Thanks for the notification I recorded it and just watched it. For a guy that was only around for a few years and considering the time period it's amazing how much video there is of him.

[ronmac]

Thanks for doing the homework for me, ronmac!


The connection is that Eric and Jimi were close friends, that's all. Eric got plenty of facetime in another documentary about Jimi.

Jimi was 27 when he died, as was Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. They all died within a year from one another. The "summer of love" was clearly over after that.

No homework. This guy did all the work.

http://www.digitalhighway.co.uk/axis/index.asp

Burdon's connection was more than that. He was right there at the end. Jimi's last performance the night before was with Eric Burdon and War. And, Jimi's girlfriend actually called Eric, when she couldn't revive Jimi, and he was the one screaming, "CALL THE FUCKING AMBULANCE!" over the phone. That's where I expected him to appear in the documentary.

I still have fairly vivid memories of listening to "Are You Experienced?" for the first time. I was almost as impressed with the drumming as I was with the guitar playing.

One of the best, for sure.

[jlneudorf]

Was just flipping through the channels and happened to to see this. Only the second hour though. Made for some riveting television.

Regards,
Jon

[Phlakaton]

I love how much influence he had... even on guys like Miles Davis. Changed the whole scene. Great music!

[mellotron storm]

Definitely enjoyed the documentary....recorded it to watch again. Man, Mitch Mitchell was insane, eh?

Robert Wyatt mentioned in an interview that after the tour opening for Hendrix and the boys in the U.S. was over Mitch Mitchell told Wyatt he could have his custom made drum set because he couldn't bear seeing Wyatt play those crappy drums anymore. This was an interview on Youtube. There was another interview on there where Fripp talked about his only meeting with Hendrix.

[Obscured]

Was just flipping through the channels and happened to to see this. Only the second hour though. Made for some riveting television.

Same here, caught the last 45 minutes or so. Amazing how he garnered so much attention from his Woodstock performance' at the time in the morning and with so many people "out of it".
It was amazing of course.

[Vic2012]

Caught most of it then hit the sack before it ended. I recently finished reading a book about Jimi so there was nothing I didn't know already. OTOH, I didn't know he fathered a couple kids (I read that in the book). And yeah, the Eddie Kramer bits were probably the most interesting parts.

[No Pride]

Burdon's connection was more than that. He was right there at the end. Jimi's last performance the night before was with Eric Burdon and War. And, Jimi's girlfriend actually called Eric, when she couldn't revive Jimi, and he was the one screaming, "CALL THE FUCKING AMBULANCE!" over the phone.

Right, Monika Whatshername was afraid to have "the man" come by because of the drugs in her apartment. Meantime, the biggest musical icon of the time was dying there. What a bimbo! Yeah, they kind of glossed over the circumstances of his death in the documentary. Oh, well.

[Banquo]

Caught most of it then hit the sack before it ended.

Same here. I was so tired from work that I decided to retire earlier than usual, but I had it on in the bedroom. Looking forward to watching it again.

[Mick]

Saw the entire two hours, great TV... but as others have said, not a lot of eye opening revelations. Unfortunately, I never saw Jimi live, tho' he was originally scheduled to play Utrecht at the huge indoor "Flight to the Lowlands Paradise" festival in 1969 where I did the lightshow for all 3 days. Jimi had to cancel at short notice, so Pink Floyd became the headliners to replace Jimi. Roye met Jimi when they both played in Kobenhavn, just before we formed Nektar, so I have Royes' memories of his experience at least....
There has been no-one who even comes close to Jimis' talent or showmanship since... but he sure became an inspiration for a lot of other guitarists.

[progeezer]

Same here, caught the last 45 minutes or so. Amazing how he garnered so much attention from his Woodstock performance' at the time in the morning and with so many people "out of it".
It was amazing of course.

The attention was because it was so amazing! I was still there early Monday morning when he went on, and if I was "out of it", I assure you that me and most of the 100,000 or so other people still there were "into it" after 8 bars, and all of a sudden had great clarity no matter how much ........ was in their system.

[ronmac]

Hey Geez, were you close enough to hear any of the percussionists? That's the one big bummer about the recording. They never picked up the extra percussion. On the amazing DVD, there's a bonus disc with the entire show recorded by some guy backstage with an early Beta Max. The footage is B&W, but he actually picked up footage that the two remaining cameramen missed while changing film. This guy actually got a chance to meet Jimi after the show because he had that video. I always wondered if his camera picked up the audio from the percussionists.

[progeezer]

No, I didn't even know about the conga player & other percussionists until years later. You could hear Mitchell pretty well iirc. We moved up Sunday night after a shitload of people had gone, but still couldn't see much. In retrospect, for 1969, they really did have enough speakers around the farm the whole weekend so you could at least hear most of it, and since they were planning on no more than 100,000, some of that work to obtain & put up more speakers was subsequent to Richie H opening the festival.I think the only performers I talked to were Jack Casady & Marty Balin walking around near where we were.

[mogrooves]

I saw Jimi and The Experience live when I was a teen. That's reason enough for not minding being as old as I am.

You and me both, bro. On both counts.

Mitch was likely one of my gateways to jazz, as his playing had more to do with Elvin Jones than Jon Bonham.

Yeah, Mitch was to Jimi what Elvin was to Trane.

[mogrooves]

I saw Mitch with Jack Bruce and Friends.

I caught him with Ramatam and met him afterward; he didn't seem too happy. After all, where do you go after Hendrix?!

[mogrooves]

were you close enough to hear any of the percussionists?

Not even remotely. From our vantage point--in the back--all we heard was Jimi. LOUD.

[hippypants]

I always wondered about his playing the guitar with his teeth. Did he really pick the strings with his teeth or tongue or was it a trick of some type of hammer-on technique? If I'm understanding a hammer-on correctly, one strikes the string with one finger (or more?) and doesn't have to used anything to pick the string per se--so essentially you're playing with the one hand.

Also I noticed in the doc the other night while he played he would wipe his arm (sleeve) along the strings of the neck of the guitar, and wondered if he was merely drying the sweat off the strings while playing or this produced some type of guitar sound he was trying to create?

[Cuz]

[QUOTE=hippypants;179828]I always wondered about his playing the guitar with his teeth. Did he really pick the strings with his teeth or tongue or was it a trick of some type of hammer-on technique? /QUOTE]

He plucked the strings with his teeth. Somewhere on VHS I have a video from some British program where the camera was right in his face and you can clearly see that. Also, if you know what to listen for, you can actually hear the difference in tone when he goes "dental".

[paythesnuka]

As usual, a great job by the American Masters series.

And this doc answered the question: Was Hendrix prog? I laughed out loud during the section where the doc played audio of the radio advertisements for the Experience concerts when one said something like "The greatest progressive rock act in the world..." (don't remember the exact wording).

[ronmac]

He definitely used his teeth. In fact, you can hear the difference when he's doing it. You can hear the picking and the sound traveling through his mouth.

[rapidfirerob]

As usual, a great job by the American Masters series.

And this doc answered the question: Was Hendrix prog? I laughed out loud during the section where the doc played audio of the radio advertisements for the Experience concerts when one said something like "The greatest progressive rock act in the world..." (don't remember the exact wording).

Jimi was in his own category.

[mogrooves]

...beyond category

[ronmac]

As usual, a great job by the American Masters series.

And this doc answered the question: Was Hendrix prog? I laughed out loud during the section where the doc played audio of the radio advertisements for the Experience concerts when one said something like "The greatest progressive rock act in the world..." (don't remember the exact wording).

That actually prompted me to start and "Earliest mentions of Prog" thread which I am beginning to regret.