Jimi Hendrix was born in Seattle on November 27, 1942. The records he made with The Jimi Hendrix Experience trace a restless interest in what could happen between a performance and a finished record. After Chas Chandler brought him to London in 1966, the group formed with Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums. Their debut, Are You Experienced, reached British listeners in May 1967, with experiments that went well beyond the notes Hendrix played on his guitar.
For its title track, guitar, bass and percussion were recorded forward, then played backward to create part of the backing. Tracks were combined to free space for his lead vocal and more guitar. Experience Hendrix’s account of the sessions also describes an echo effect on “Purple Haze” made by feeding a recording through headphones positioned around a microphone and moving them. Those sounds came from decisions made at the tape machines and mixing desk, with Chandler producing and Eddie Kramer engineering the later sessions.
Axis: Bold As Love followed in Britain in December 1967, bringing songs including “Little Wing” and “Castles Made of Sand.” Hendrix was already hearing possibilities the finished record hadn’t captured. In a December 1967 interview with Thomas Lopez, known as Meatball Fulton, he described his frustration with recording and mastering, including the way a carefully mixed sound could lose its depth when the master was cut. “I just want to make sure I can get out what I want,” he said. He wanted stereo sound to move above, behind and beneath the listener, and talked about making the next album a double despite resistance from producers and record companies.
That larger format became a reality with Electric Ladyland in 1968. Hendrix produced the two-LP set, which made room for the nearly 15-minute blues performance “Voodoo Chile” alongside “Crosstown Traffic” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return).” The similarly named “Voodoo” tracks are separate recordings: the extended blues arrives early in the album, while “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” closes it. Guest musicians also joined the core trio, expanding the album beyond the original band’s three-piece lineup.
Hendrix’s ambitions also took physical shape in New York. In 1968, he and his manager bought a former nightclub in Greenwich Village. He initially considered keeping it as a live venue, but Kramer helped persuade him to turn it into a professional recording studio. The result was Electric Lady Studios, where Hendrix hosted an opening party on August 26, 1970. For a musician who had spoken so plainly about losing the sound he wanted between recording and release, building a place to work was a substantial commitment to that process.
Recording had begun before the opening celebration. Hendrix worked at Electric Lady between June and August 1970, developing material for another studio album. On “Freedom,” he played piano as well as guitar and sang the lead vocal. The recording took shape across sessions in all three months; “Night Bird Flying” and “Dolly Dagger” were also among the songs he worked on there.
Hendrix died on September 18, 1970, leaving that next album unfinished. The 1997 compilation First Rays of the New Rising Sun gathered 17 recordings from his late studio work, including “Freedom,” “Angel” and “Dolly Dagger.” It brought those songs together without settling the question Hendrix’s death left open: which recordings he would ultimately have chosen for the album.
