portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Tuesday, January 01, 2019


On this day in music history: December 31, 1969 - Jimi Hendrix debuts his new band Band Of Gypsys at the Fillmore East in New York City. The blues rock trio consists of Hendrix on guitar and vocals along with drummer Buddy Miles and bassist Billy Cox (the latter being an army buddy of Hendrix’s whom he jammed with while both were in the service). The band is formed in the wake of the demise of The Experience with Cox having played with Jimi at Woodstock in August of 1969. Band Of Gypsys are booked to play four shows spread over two nights at the legendary New York City venue which are videotaped and recorded. Playing mostly original material, recordings from the New Years Eve performances surface as the album “Band Of Gypsys” released by Capitol Records in March 1970, in order to fulfill an earlier contractual agreement Hendrix had with the label. In spite of excellent on stage chemistry between the musicians, the bands’ time together is short lived. The Band Of Gypsys implodes only a month later after a gig at Madison Square Garden is aborted two songs into the performance, when Hendrix gets into a verbal altercation with a woman in the audience, and then abruptly leaves the stage.




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