Jimi Hendrix was undoubtedly an exciting guitarist to see live. It was in the studio, however, where his creative mojo percolated and pored out into music of his own and the radical arrangements of others. The recording studio was a sanctuary where Hendrix spent hour upon hour, experimenting and jamming with friends and admirers. Like buried treasure, previously unreleased gems from those sessions keep bubbling to the top of the froth, begging for exposure. Both Sides Of The Sky, the third in a trilogy behind Valleys Of Neptune and People, Hell And Angels, features 13 tracks, 10 of which have never been released before, all recorded from 1968 to 1970.
Band of Gypsys members, bassist Billy Cox and drummer Buddy Miles, accompany Hendrix together or separately on most of the cuts. They’re on the album’s opener, a soulful and biting crack at Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy.” Cox and Miles also helped shape “Lover Man,” a song Hendrix had been trying to finish for years. Another instrumental called “Sweet Angel,” serves as the prototype for what would become “Angel,” Hendrix’s first posthumous single.
Drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding, as part of the original Jimi Hendrix Experience, drive the rhythm behind “Hear My Train A Comin’.” Mitchell also appears on other tracks. Unreleased tracks like “Stepping Stone,” “Jungle,” and “Cherokee Mist,” a moody, head-spinning instrumental that has Hendrix playing both guitar and sitar, attest to the guitarist’s never-ending quest of reaching beyond his instrument, weaving new textures and tones into his recording oeuvre. As if that wasn’t enough, Both Sides Of The Sky has classic examples of Hendrix’s willingness to musically spar with other players of his stature.
Many are aware of the friendship Stephen Stills cultivated with the guitarist. Hendrix even appeared on Still’s 1970 debut solo album. So it wasn’t surprising when Hendrix and Stills got together for a session at New York’s The Record Plant in September 1969, just days after Woodstock. It was here that Stills played Joni Mitchell’s song, “Woodstock” for the first time, a year before Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young recorded it for their album ‘Déjà Vu’. Joined by Miles on drums and Hendrix on bass, Stills sings and plays organ on the loose and snappy arrangement featured on Both Sides Of The Sky. Stills’ own “$20 Fine,” with Hendrix on guitar, Mitchell on drums, Duane Hitchings (Buddy Miles Express) on piano, and Stills again playing the organ and singing, is another one here that the former Buffalo Springfield singer brought in.
A long heard-about-but-scarcely-heard collaboration included features Hendrix and Johnny Winter trading blues and slide licks, with Cox and drummer Dallas Taylor of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, burning through Guitar Slim’s “Things I Used To Do.” Old Curtis Knight & The Squires band mate, saxophonist and vocalist Lonnie Youngblood, appears on “Georgia Blues,” which was previously released on the 2008 Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues box set. Altogether, Both Sides Of The Sky, yet another collection of previously unreleased Hendrix nuggets to fawn over and fuss about, might not be on everyone’s bucket list, and given the circumstances surrounding Jimi Hendrix and his legacy, almost understandable. But not quite. For blues freaks, guitar fanatics, rock and rollers, and diehard Hendrix aficionados, this is pure heaven.
~ Shawn Perry
