Product Description

Following the breakup of the Experience, Hendrix took a sabbatical in Woodstock, New York, hooked up with bassist BillyCox, his old Air Force running mate, and began jamming witha wide variety of musicians, including R&B drummer Buddy Miles. Hendrix had become self-conscious about his image as a showman and rocker, and about the limitations of thrashing through the same repertoire night after night. BAND OF GYPSYSwas an attempt by Hendrix to redefine himself, and in a wayheralded his return to the ethos of the blues and R&B, a return assisted by a powerhouse, groove-oriented rhythm section.
During their brief tenure as a band, Band Of Gypsys performed New Year's Eve at the Fillmore East, and this live recording captures some of Hendrix's most monumental solos, particularly his long, intensely emotional improvisation on "Machine Gun" (including the screeches of bombs and gunfire) and his pithy blues work on "Who Knows". Buddy Miles's "ThemChanges" illustrates Hendrix's mastery of funk, while "Message of Love" and "Power of Soul" demonstrate his remarkable ability to provide a simultaneous rhythm accompaniment and melodic counterpoint to his vocals, in the blues tradition ofRobert Johnson. BAND OF GYPSYS was markedly different from Hendrix's work with Experience, but rivals it in terms of scope, vision, and beauty.

Track Listing

1. Who Knows
2. Machine Gun
3. Power To Love
4. Message To Love
5. Changes
6. We Gotta Live Together

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4318 in Music
• Released on: 1999-03-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Running time: 45 minutes

From Amazon.com
Tired of the showboating image that his early live performances had saddled him with--and that his black audience viewed as demeaning and degrading to his musical talent--Hendrix dissolved his Experience in 1969 in search of a more terra-firma-grounded, blues-oriented persona. On New Year's Eve, Hendrix, his old Army buddy bassist Billy Cox, and ex-Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles performed a loose, jam-filled set at New York's Fillmore East (completists will want the panoramic though uneven Live at the Fillmore East). Released a few months after his New Year's Eve 1969 concert, Band of Gypsies underscored Hendrix's desired return to basics--even if his basic was at a level most guitarists could never attain in a lifetime of playing. --Billy Altman

Customer Reviews

BOG
This is one great album that needs to be played loud.Jimi's guitar wails through all the songs and notably "Machine Gun" in which he brings forth the Vietnam War fought by the USA in Asia in in visual perspective but created by sounds from his unbelievable guitar-work.You can almost see the plane shot down by the machine gun as the pilot labours to keep the plane airborne as the engines have been hit.The engine finally dies as it hisses lifelessly despite the frantic efforts of the pilot to kick it back to life!Wow!What guitar work!No mortal man has ever played a guitar to the proficiency of the Gods as did Jimi Hendrix back then with mediocre technology. His guitar wizardly is unequally to date.In this record he showed the world that it was possible to be gentle and still be very aggressive in the delivery of music.You cannot ask for much more.

A unique meeting of hard rock and soul
One of the greatest `what if's of 1960's rock music must be if the all black, 1969 Hendrix project Band of Gypsies had survived more than a few weeks and developed their own dynamic mergence of rock, soul and blues even further. 1969 showed that the arbitrary divide between rock and soul music could be breeched, with Ike and Tina Turner touring with the Rolling Stones, Sly Stone and Ritchie Havens performing at Woodstock. Sadly this trend was not to continue into the 1970's. The one off meeting of the extraordinary guitar playing of Hendrix alongside a more soul/jazz influenced drummer Buddy Rich, who also shared vocals, makes this album exceptional. The ability of Billy Cox on bass, also really shines through. Some absolutely stunning work here, Six tracks recorded on New Years Eve 1969/1970 , two tracks written by Rich, four by Hendrix. The most known offering, the anti-war standard `Machine Gun'- at approaching 13 minutes - features some brilliant but indulgent musicianship ,and its worth remembering that both Hendrix and Cox had served in the US army. `Power To Love' and `We Gotta Live Together' `Who Knows`, are sublime, imagine Sly Stone or the Isley Brothers at their best being fused with hard rock. The crowning height is `Power To Love', ferocious guitar work added to a funk rhythm. No tracks here could have been lifted to release as singles, none of the songs drift into the heady realms of psychedelic. Just ground breaking music.

Inspired
Considering this album was given to Ed Chalpin to settle arguments over some highly dubious contract signed before Jimi became famous I can only imagine that it's true worth must have been overlooked by it's author and those around him who seemed intent on continuing to present him in the milieu of white rock'roll. What we have here is something completely different from the psychedelic Experience output.Hendrix's phenomenal improvisational ability seems to redouble over the bedrock of Billy Cox's liquid funk bass lines and Buddy Miles' precision gutbucket drummming, and although the songs may not be up to the standard of previous releases they have an earthy and funky quality to them and a cohesiveness lacking in much of the Experiences' live output.This album reputedly was the one that turned Miles onto Hendrix and listening now it seems like the least dated and most forward looking. It's a damn shame that this trio didn't get to record more together.