Big week ahead for what would’ve been rocker’s 80th
It’s a big week ahead celebrating what would’ve been Jimi Hendrix’s 80th birthday on November 27th. A variety of events are planned, including a live album release, book, tribute concert and more.
Jimi Hendrix Experience – Los Angeles Forum April 26, 1969, a live album from Experience Hendrix through Legacy Recordings, will be officially released on Friday, November 18th. Recorded in the spring of 1969 before a raucous, sold out audience, the captivating performance of the original lineup (singer/guitarist Jimi Hendrix, drummer Mitch Mitchell, bassist Noel Redding) has never before been released in its entirety.
ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons will guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live on November 17th, the evening before the album’s release. He’ll be sitting in with the band and playing Hendrix material using the Gibson Flying V guitar that Jimi throughout his 1970 tour, including his appearance in August of 1970 in front of a crowd of 600,000 at the Isle of Wight Festival, the largest audience of his career. The guitar is being transported from London to Los Angeles from the collection of Hard Rock International under the auspices of Chase McCue, Hard Rock’s Director of Memorabilia. Gibbons’ connection to the enduring legacy of Jimi Hendrix is highlighted in the liner notes he wrote for Los Angeles Forum April 26, 1969. The Moving Sidewalks, his pre-ZZ Top band, had shared a number of concert bills with the Jimi Hendrix Experience and he and Hendrix struck up a friendship. Gibbons was in Los Angeles in April 1969 when the Experience were to perform and was invited to the performance. Billy chronicled that “Experience” in an essay titled “I Was There” which is included in the album.
He recalled, “In those days VIP seating was yet to be, so we angled over to side-stage. I stood standing with arms folded and I remember Jimi looked over and gave me a nod, the same nod that he gave me the first night that we played together when the Moving Sidewalks had to flesh out their opening set with ‘Purple Haze’ and ‘Foxey Lady.'” His enthusiasm for the performance abides to the present day as he noted, “The Jimi Hendrix Experience lit the house up and tore it right down!”
Janie Hendrix and John McDermott are authors of Jimi, a new visual celebration of Jimi Hendrix’s career and legacy out now from Chronicle Books’ Chroma imprint. This visually stunning and specially curated deluxe hardcover book is a comprehensive, graphic salute Jimi Hendrix with rarely seen photos and candid images, dedications, and inspirational anecdotes, giving fans an inside look at Jimi’s groundbreaking musical artistry. A reception for the book and its authors is set for LA’s Mr. Musichead Gallery on Thursday night, November 17th. Billy Gibbons, immediately following his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, will also be on hand to autograph his Los Angeles Forum liner notes.
A special Jimi Hendrix birthday concert event is set for Austin City Limits Live’s Moody Theater on the evening of Sunday, December 4th. The concert features Band of Gypsys and Jimi Hendrix Experience member Billy Cox, anchoring the rhythm section; the show’s performers also include Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas, Zakk Wylde, Dweezil Zappa, Eric Johnson, Doyle Bramhall II and Chris Layton (from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble) as well as The Slide Brothers, Mato Nanji of Indigenous with more to be announced soon.
