# Number of Discs: 1
# Format: Original recording remastered
# Label: Experience Hendrix
# ASIN: B00000DHZJ
Personnel: Jimi Hendrix (vocals, guitar, flute, kazoo, piano, harpsichord, glockenspiel, bass); Dave Mason (acoustic guitar, background vocals); Noel Redding (bass, background vocals); Billy Cox (bass); Mitch Mitchell (drums, percussion); Graham Nash (feet).
Producers include: Chas Chandler, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Kramer, Mitch Mitchell, John Jansen.
Compilation producer: Janie Hendrix, John McDermott.
Engineers: Dave Siddle, Eddie Kramer, Mike Ross.
This collection represents the essential items of the Jimi Hendrix catalog. Each selection illustrates Hendrix's uniqueness as both guitarist and composer. In the '60s, he virtually defined rock guitar, remaking history in his own image. His mix of blues, psychedelia and Dylanesque folk-rock made him a rock & roll icon.
It's in the surreal balladry of "The Wind Cries Mary." It's in the archetypal hard-rock cadences of "Purple Haze." It's in everything this electric guitar prodigy laid his talented hands on. Those unfamiliar with Hendrix's legacy are fortunate to have EXPERIENCE HENDRIX as a guide.
Experience Hendrix brings together the major singles with a stack of majestic album tracks and the career-defining live Woodstock version of "The Star Spangled Banner" on a fat 20-tracker. While best used as a sampler to direct new listeners to the immortal Are You Experienced, Electric Ladyland, and so on, the CD (which supplants the short-lived Ultimate Experience collection) does hang together as a listen. Its blend of Hendrix the rocker and Hendrix the underrated soul man is suggestive, painting a picture of a multifaceted genius and transcending its plainly mercenary origins. In the end, its effect--like that of all Hendrix's best records--is to remind us of a Jimi very, very much alive. --Rickey Wright
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