I bought an album of Jimi Hendrix but I can’t find out any info on it. It’s called “In The Begining” and it’s of a concert (or concerts) in New York in 1966, just before he went to London to form The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The album doesn’t say where it was recorded or who the other musicians are. All’s I know is that it’s mostly instrumental and it sounds really groovy.
Anyone know any info about it? Maybe where or when it was recorded? Who the other musicians are? If it has any value?
Most likely it’s a bootleg.
There are lots of bootleg Hendrix albums. I once knew a guy who had 50, some of which were different names on ones he already had. I’m not a Jimi maven, myself, but I know Jimi was careful to record nearly everything he ever played. He wasn’t too careful about hanging on to the tapes.
Well, he couldn’t hang on to his tapes since he died. “You can’t take them with you.”
Some of his family have been very sloppy about letting people release albums from random tapes. So there is an astonishing amount of crap with his name on it out there. There has been some attempt to tighten things up lately and authorize only the best materials but it is too little too late. Generally, if he didn’t release it or at least finish producing it himself, forget it.
I don’t think you have a rare album. Just another one of the indistinguishable stuff.
Actually, the family only gained control of the Hendrix catalog three or four years ago. Before that, it was record company hacks who put together all the posthumous releases, sometimes replacing the original drum and bass tracks with newly recorded stuff. The whole thing was made worse because Jimi had signed a couple contracts before he was “discovered,” so there were various people with tapes and legal claims. It was a mess, which has been somewhat (but far from entirely) cleaned up by the family since they got the material back.
Jimi’s dad, Al Hendix, died in the last year or so, and I think it’s Jimi’s half-sister (name escapes me) who’s overseeing the releases these days.