Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision Jimi Hendrix

Album review

In 1968, Jimi Hendrix bought the Generation Club (a nightclub in New York's Greenwich Village, a former country music mecca). He bought it for $50,000 and decided to transform it into a studio. The transformation was costly and time-consuming. In June 1970 the guitarist decided to use it to record the successor to Electric Ladyland, his previous album released two years earlier. He spent three months recording with Mitch Mitchell, his loyal drummer from The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and bassist Billy Cox, a friend he met during his military service in 1962. Cox replaced Noel Redding who Hendrix had been becoming increasingly displeased with, to the point of recording the bass parts of Electric Ladyland himself.

Around thirty tracks were recorded during these sessions which eventually lead to the album First Rays of the New Rising Sun, released in 1997. On this three-disc compilation, we find most of the tracks released on his posthumous album (apart from Valleys of Neptune, Drifter's Escape and Farther Up the Road), but this retrospective record predominantly offers an unprecedented insight into Jimi Hendrix’s final compositions, highlighting his obsession with perfection through various alternative takes. After ten weeks of playing in what was effectively a construction site, an opening party was held on the 26th of August 1970. The next day, Hendrix recorded his last song, Slow Blues, and flew to his Isle of Wight Festival gig. He died in London three weeks later, on the 18th of September 1970. This eagerly awaited release will delight any fan of this six-string master. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz