The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Winterland [LEGACY]

Why you'll love it

This authorized Hendrix family edition gathers the best of the Winterland run on one LP, mixed by Eddie Kramer and pressed in the EU, with a lithograph. It catches the original trio live in the autumn of 1968, at full volume and full stretch.

This edition

• Lithograph included
• Mixed by Eddie Kramer
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Three nights, six shows, and a band at the height of its powers: in October 1968 The Jimi Hendrix Experience took over the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, the old ice rink Bill Graham had turned into a concert hall. The tapes became a four-disc set in 2011, and this LP pulls the highlights into one sitting.

Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell push hard from the first bars of "Fire," "Foxey Lady" struts, and "Hey Joe" gets a loose, bluesy stretch. "Little Wing" is as delicate as Hendrix ever played it on stage, "Are You Experienced?" spirals off into the ether, and "Purple Haze" sends everyone home with their ears ringing. Over the run, guests drifted in and out, from Jefferson Airplane's Jack Casady on bass to organist Herbie Rich and flautist Virgil Gonsalves, which tells you how open the stage was those nights.

Eddie Kramer, who engineered the studio albums, mixed the tapes, with Janie Hendrix and John McDermott producing. The playing is loose, loud and generous, the sound of a band enjoying a home crowd. It's the next best thing to a ticket, and considerably easier to keep in a sleeve.

Also at Kops: more Jimi Hendrix on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Experience Hendrix / Legacy (cat# 19802989271), a reissue of the 2011 live album.