Hendrix: Band of Gypsies
Made less than a year before his death in September 1970,Band of Gypsyswas an album recorded live to fulfill a contractual obligation for a long-forgotten deal Jimi Hendrix signed when he still spelled his name "Jimmy." Hendrix had just disbanded the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and in order to dispense with the album as quickly as possible, he put together a new trio featuring Billy Cox (an old Army buddy) and drummer Buddy Miles, whose bombastic singing and thudding drum style would soon pollute FM airwaves across the nation. (Former Hendrix drummer Mitch Mitchell refers to him here as "William the Concreter," for his cement-mixer sense of rhythm.) They booked the Fillmore East with the idea of recording the shows for a live album, and this DVD features recently unearthed film footage of that historic performance, with Hendrix at the top of his powers (despite Miles's excesses). It also offers several other rare live performances from British clubs in the mid-1960s. The musical moments are mixed with new interview footage, including conversations with the self-effacing Cox and the self-aggrandizing Miles. If you've only heard the CDs (Band of GypsysandJimi Hendrix: Live at the Fillmore East), you've only gotten half of this particular Jimi Hendrix experience.--Marshall Fine