Jimi Hendrix - What'd I Say (Mfp - 5278)

I have reviewed a box set of Jimi Hendrix named The Story Of Jimi Hendrix a couple of weeks ago which featured his early works in studio and live along with Curtis Knight. Well here we are back at those times again with a live recording from 1965 with Hendrix on guitar and Knight on vocals. The recording was done by Ed Chalpin again as with the box set.

The record openly shows the early period of Hendrix moving from Soul to Gospel and to Blues. There is even Funk in it. "On The Killin' Floor" is the Funk track on the 6 track album. Actually I've known this song via Orgone which is a very good Funk group and they also had this old track in their repertoire. It is a moving and a killing track. It is quite interesting how Hendrix takes on the challenge and gets through with it at ease.

Another interesting aspect of the album is the track with is also naming it. "What'd I Say" was written by Ray Charles during the times when he was creating the genre of Soul. Similar to his performance in "On The Killin' Floor", Hendrix has probably taken a lot of listening before and plays it superbly until the end. It is also evident from the fact that the crowd keeps on going and going as he plays.

"Bright Lights Big City" was a track which also appeared on the box set, but this time it is live. The intro shows Hendrix playing absolutely genuine Blues on his part and his roots are clear at this point. Even though he didn't lack anything in the other tracks, he shows that this is his turf. The song is short in time and therefore doesn't give you the full taste, but it is quite a pleasure listening those few minutes.

This album is clearly a lesser known work of Hendrix and the sound quality is not that attractive as well. Actually that is not the essence anyway. We had the same problem in his album "Band Of Gypsys" which was a concert he gave on New Year's Eve. Same problem can be seen here. Recording techniques were not that good in that time, especially when it comes to recording during a concert and you have to accept losing some quality of sound recording in order to get the essence out of these great players since they get nurtured from the crowd and play at a much higher level. All in all it shows how Hendrix started his magnificient career and from where he actually took off.

To buy this record:

@ Discogs
@ Ebay