Remembering Mitch Mitchell (9 July 1946 – 12 November 2008) | Don's Tunes

Ever a favourite drummer and thoroughly nice man from what I can tell and telling it is that Jimi would return time after time to Mitch as reliable as he was to play alongside the master . . . . 

To hear Mitchell tell it, his introduction to Hendrix was hardly the weighty stuff of drumming lore. It could've just as easily never happened. In the mid-'60s, while still in his teens, Mitchell established himself in London, where he worked as a sideman and session drummer for various bands, including Screaming Lord Sutch and Johnny Kidd and the Pirates.

"It was an early equivalent, I suppose, of the brat pack," he says. "There were a few young players in the studios at that time in London: Johnny Baldwin [John Paul Jones], Jimmy Page. There was this one street, Denmark Street, which was like London's Tin Pan Alley. All the music publishers were there, and consequently, most of them had their little recording studios in the basement, and you'd go and do demo tapes for whoever it was.

"A lot of times, you didn't know who the heck it was for, because we were recording backing tracks. It could be Tom Jones, it could be Petula Clark. I did some things for Ready, Steady, Go, which was a TV program. Basically, you would take on anything that moved, and if you were lucky enough, you progressed from doing Denmark Street demos to the proper Musicians' Union sessions, which paid us a little bit more."

In 1966, Mitchell was working with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, a well-known r&b act in Europe that had scored a respectable international hit the year before with "Yeh Yeh." Mitchell visited Fame's office every Monday to collect his weekly earnings, until one fateful payday when he was informed that the entire band was sacked. "My face sort of hit the floor, it was so unexpected," he recalls. "I literally walked down Charing Cross Road past all the music stores, back to Denmark Street - it was like going back to your roots, basically - and I went to a coffee bar just to think things over.

"Apart from being pretty devastated, my first thought was, 'I'm 19 years old. What am I going to do? What do I want to do?' I thought, the first thing, of trying to form some kind of band of my own. [Laughs] That lasted about five minutes. Actually, I did get a session that afternoon and that kind of brought a smile to my face. I thought, 'Well, okay. I have the choice of either going back to the studio or hopefully, if I'm lucky enough, I'll get gigs.' I did like the idea of working on the road with a band. It just seemed right."

Absolutely right, because Mitchell would soon receive a phone call from Chas Chandler, the former bassist with the Animals, who had since gone into band management and production. "I knew Chas vaguely from the Animals," Mitchell remembers, "and he said, 'Hey look, do you want to come and have a play with this guy I brought over [from America]?' I didn't realize it at the time, but of course, it was an audition.

"I went down to this little basement strip club in Soho and there was Jimi with a Fender Stratocaster upside-down with a kind of fake London Fog raincoat on, with his wild hair, and Noel Redding, who had been playing with Jimi I think for a couple of days, who I found out later was a guitarist, really, playing bass. I think there was a keyboard player, if memory serves me right, from Nero and the Gladiators. That was the idea first off, to maybe have a keyboard player.

"I just took down a tiny little Ludwig drum kit and said, 'What do you want?' basically. 'What are you looking for and what's it about?' I remember to this day, these tiny little amplifiers, and Hendrix was not happy with these little amplifiers so he was starting to kick them around. Like a lot of auditions, it really came down to the lowest common denominator. [We played] a bit of Chuck Berry, a bit of this, bit of that. I just threw in my Deutschmark, whatever you want to call it.

"He played a couple of things on the guitar that I found interesting - the style - and it kind of sparked me off. I used to get a lot of demos from, like, Curtis Mayfield, early Impressions things. And Hendrix was the first person I'd ever seen who could actually play that Curtis Mayfield style, which was unusual. So I named a Jerry Butler song, or an Impressions thing, and he knew it and could play it, and I thought, 'Oh, interesting.' I mean, I'd never been around that area of music before."

After jamming about 45 minutes, Mitchell packed up his gear and went home, feeling "intrigued." Two days later, he received another phone call from Chandler, who once again invited the drummer to jam with Hendrix, only this time, when he showed up, Mitchell found that there was no keyboard player - just the core power trio that would soon become internationally known as the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

At first, the three-piece lineup reminded Mitchell of Cream - a star-studded supergroup featuring Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker - which had become the talk of the town around London. He remembers, "I came out with some facetious comment like, 'So, you want me to try to play like Ginger Baker or something?' Hendrix just goes, 'Oh, yeah, whatever you want, man.' But I did get the impression on that second time playing [together] that something was released. It was like a feeling of freedom. I don't know if it's a spiritual awakening. It was just a situation where I'd gone, 'Hey, you've never worked in a three-piece band in your life, ever, and there is something with this player that is very, very special.'"

Mitchell wasn't alone. There were plenty of other drummers around London who wanted the gig. "What did surprise me, very much, is that it appears that a lot of people had been going for auditions and had been playing with Jimi for about two weeks prior to me hearing about this," he says. "London's not that large a place, and in those days, there weren't that many drummers about. A lot of my peers, colleagues - call them what you will - they'd gone for the job. Aynsley Dunbar and Mickey Waller had gone, and knew about this guy and they wanted the job, basically. That's what surprised me, because I didn't hear about it."

Mitchell got the gig after jamming with Hendrix and Redding for a third time. "I think I actually asked Chas, the manager, 'What's on offer? What's the deal here?' It was like, 'Well, look. We've got nothing, apart from a chance. There's two weeks' work, basically.' And I'd gone, 'Well, okay. I tell you what. I'll give it a crack. I'll have a go for two weeks.' What have you got to lose? You're 19 years old, and in fairness to the music, there was something that I could see was potentially inspiring."

With no record deal and hardly any original material, Chandler began to book gigs around England for the Experience. "We had no songs when we first started," Mitchell says. "So for the first couple of gigs, we were doing stuff like [Wilson Pickett's] 'Midnight Hour,' anything we could think of, quite honestly." The band's first tour was a series of opening slots for French rocker Johnny Halliday, followed by "anything that was offered," including pubs and pool halls. But the word seeped quickly through the underground about the band's wild stage shows and startling techniques, and record company cronies began to poke around backstage.

Chandler knew that the Experience was ripe for the studio. "Bless his heart," Mitchell says, "Chas was hocking every bass he owned in sight just to subsidize the band and recording time." The first song the Experience recorded was "Hey Joe" at De Lane Lea studios. In its day, it was a perfectly adequate facility, but by today's standard it was practically Jurassic. "Over all those years, the technology changed so much," Mitchell says. "When we first started recording from the Hendrix days, we had Chas Chandler working as the producer. Don't forget, the Animals' 'House of the Rising Sun' cost £4 - which is $8.00, whatever it is - to make and was done in 15 minutes, first take. And it sounded good.

"Obviously, we were fortunate enough to be around some pretty competent engineers. There was a certain amount of talent going around, especially in England then. It strikes me, looking back on it, English engineers made the most of the limited capabilities of the technology. They knew the structure of the rooms and they knew what mikes to use and where to record things from. They would make the most of the acoustics with limited equipment. And Hendrix did have a natural capability of working in the studio. To him, that was like his palate of colors. There are some people who feel very comfortable behind the board and know how things work. He was just very natural with the technology that existed. I don't know how much time he'd spent working in studios before."

Interview by Nicky Gebhart

Photo by Dezo Hoffman

Don's Tunes

Other Birthdays this month | Remembering Buddy Miles (September 5, 1947 – February 26, 2008)

Photographer: Gered Mankowitz

Born George Allen Miles Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska, his aunt nicknamed him after the big-band drummer Buddy Rich, and began playing drums as a child and was 12 years old when he joined his father’s jazz group, the Bebops. As a teenager he also worked with soul and rhythm-and-blues acts, among them the Ink Spots, the Delfonics and Wilson Pickett. By 1967, he had moved to Chicago, where he was a founding member of the Electric Flag.

In 1967 he formed the Electric Flag with guitarist Mike Bloomfield. While the lead vocalist for the Flag was Nick Gravenites, fans of the Flag always looked forward to the numbers sung by Miles. Listen to the slow blues song “Texas” by the short-lived Flag and you will get a sense of what Miles brought to the group. Although the band collapsed in the wake of a disappointing second album, Miles retained its horn section for his next venture, the Buddy Miles Express. This exciting unit also included former Mitch Ryder guitarist Jim McCarthy. Their first album, Expressway To Your Skull, was full of driving, electric soul rhythms that had the blessing of Jimi Hendrix, who produced the album and wrote the sleeve notes.

After Electric Flag, Miles would begin his involvement with the legendary Hendrix. Miles had met Hendrix in an earlier time when both were acting as sidemen for other artists in the early ’60s. Their meeting had occurred in Canada at a show both were participating in. This prefaced a later friendship that would result in varied collaborations between the two artists. An extremely busy Hendrix would produce the Buddy Miles Express release, “Electric Church”, in 1969. There was obvious public curiosity as to whether the name of the band “Buddy Miles Express” was influenced by Hendrix’s act, “The Jimi Hendrix Experience”.

Soon after, Hendrix started opening his recording style to include guest artists. And in this mode Hendrix was working in, Miles quite naturally was invited to participate. He played with Jimi Hendrix on the hugely influential “Electric Ladyland” album. Miles played on the songs “Rainy Day, Dream Away” and “Still Raining, Still Dreaming”.

Soon after the release of this groundbreaking album, he would join Hendrix in a short lived Band of Gypsys. One of the notable features for his auidience at the time was the fact that all of the players were black. This was a first for Hendrix as an international recording star and this choice reflected a move toward reconnecting with his soul roots. It also had the effect of re-associating rock with its African American roots. “Live at the Fillmore East” was arguably Miles and Hendrix’s most riveting recording. The band was based in New York City where Hendrix was spending the majority of his time. Hendrix, who was tangled in legal litigation concerning contracts he had signed in the past prior to his becoming internationally recognized, was required to release a record to the Capitol Records label as part of the agreement in court. This fact led to the live recording of his collaboration with both Miles and Billy Cox. The Band of Gypsys made a famous and enduring live album that was recorded in New York’s Fillmore East on New Year’s Eve 1969/70. However during a follow up performance a month later, Hendrix had a minor, drug-related meltdown on stage which has also been speculated to have be an act of sabotage. Miles was fired by Hendrix manager, Michael Jeffery and the Band of Gypsys all too short life came to an end.

Miles continued to work with Hendrix during early and mid 1970 after the Jimi Hendrix Experience had failed to reform to record. Miles would share recording studio drumming duties on songs “Room Full of Mirrors”, “Izabella”, “Ezy Ryder” and the first version of “Stepping Stones” (for which Mitchell played a final drum track). These songs have been released in several posthumous Hendrix albums.

by E. "Doc" Smith 

I don’t quite know why but I was never quite happy or convinced by Buddy as a great drummer or better than Mitch Mitchel which may hold the key to my prejudice as I still consider Mitch the much better drummer but reading this I take him lightly at my peril the driving force behind an early Electric Flag with Bloomfield and Gravenites who I really admired and later the Express who I dig too, it was just somehow I never felt the right ‘fit’ behind Jimi somehow and then we learn he is on Electric Ladyland in places so that’ll do for me. 

It is probably more to do with Band of Gypsys as I didn’t care for where that was going but once he brought Mitch back in I was happier. Miles remains a towering influence on drummers and an important figure in not only, of course, his own legendary history but in Jimi’s too!

 

MITCH MITCHELL'S FIRST IMPRESSION OF JIMI HENDRIX | Jordan Potter

 

 Drummers could be described as the goalkeepers of rock ‘n’ roll: they play a unique role . . . . . 

 They are the strong bedrock from which the magic arises and are usually placed at the back, unfairly eclipsed by their outfield teammates. To make themselves heard, rock drummers must be thunderous like John Bonham and Keith Moon or unconventionally dynamic like Ginger Baker and Mitch Mitchell.

While appearing on Amazon’s motoring series The Grand Tour in 2018, Nick Mason and Stewart Copeland discussed their favourite drummers with host Jeremy Clarkson. The pair, who drummed for Pink Floyd and The Police, respectively, agreed on a hierarchy wherein Mitch Mitchell just topped Ginger Baker as their all-time favourite.

“This was Jimi Hendrix’s drummer,” Clarkson clarified. “I think we should explain to those of you who are not as old as we are.” Mitchell had passed away some ten years prior to the interview and may not be as familiar to audience members as Hendrix. “That’s the travesty right there,” Copeland retorted, cutting Clarkson short. “This great towering… this monument of drums, was Jimi Hendrix’s drummer!”

Slightly confused, Clarkson prompted Copland to elaborate. “Well, Jimi was Mitch’s guitarist,” The Police drummer said, observing the drummer’s goalkeeper treatment.

Of course, Jimi Hendrix was very much the figurehead of his band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Still, it is quite remarkable that the American guitar virtuoso managed to form a band with the Hendrix of the drumming world. Alongside bassist Noel Redding, Mitchell provided the perfect rhythm for Hendrix to frame his immortal releases, including Are You Experienced and Electric Ladyland.

After failing to break out in the competitive and diluted US scene, Hendrix fell on his feet in a chance encounter with former Animals bassist Chas Chandler. Chandler encouraged Hendrix to travel back to London with him, where he could immerse himself in the fertile British psychedelic rock scene. Hendrix took heed in 1966 and, within weeks, had acquainted Redding and Mitchell.

In a 1998 interview with Nicky Gebhart, Mitchell remembered jamming with Hendrix in an audition session of sorts. The trio, sculpted by Chandler, reminded him of Cream, which featured Eric Clapton on guitar, with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker forming the rhythm section. “I came out with some facetious comment like, ‘So, you want me to try to play like Ginger Baker or something?’ Hendrix just goes, ‘Oh, yeah, whatever you want, man.'”

Mitchell immediately resonated with Hendrix’s famously nonchalant demeanour. “It was like a feeling of freedom,” he reflected. “I don’t know if it’s a spiritual awakening. It was just a situation where I’d gone, ‘Hey, you’ve never worked in a three-piece band in your life, ever, and there is something with this player that is very, very special.'”

Continuing, Mitchell remembered that Chandler and Hendrix had received applications from several other London-based drummers. “London’s not that large a place, and in those days, there weren’t that many drummers about,” he added. “A lot of my peers, colleagues – call them what you will – they’d gone for the job. Aynsley Dunbar and Mickey Waller had gone and knew about this guy, and they wanted the job, basically. That’s what surprised me because I didn’t hear about it.”

During Mitchell’s first audition session, a keyboard player was present in a four-piece set-up; at the second, the Experience power trio gelled for the first time; and in the third, Mitchell received his official offer. “I think I actually asked Chas, the manager, ‘What’s on offer? What’s the deal here?'” Mitchell recalled. “Well, look. We’ve got nothing apart from a chance,” Chandler replied.

At the time, Mitchell was just 19 years old. Chandler offered him just “two weeks’ work” to begin with, and since he was “inspired” by Hendrix’s guitar ability, he said he’d “give it a crack.” At first, the band had to get by on psychedelic rock covers, including the future fan favourite ‘Hey Joe’. “We had no songs when we first started,” Mitchell recalled. However, the band began to scrape a few original tracks together for a debut album.

Within months, The Jimi Hendrix Experience had made a promising start with the singles ‘Hey Joe’, ‘Purple Haze’, and ‘The Wind Cries Mary’. When Are You Experienced arrived in May 1967, the trio proved themselves to be more-than-worthy competitors for Cream’s throne.

✍️ Jordan Potter

📸 Mike Dolbear

Mitch Mitchell - Interview with Guitar World

 Such a nice guy and he is spot on here . . . . . poor Noel never really cut the mustard! Bless ‘im!

Jimi on bass on All Along The Watchtower? Yup, you knew it!

Noel’s ego wasn’t such a problem really but he was just never really turned on to ‘it’ IMHO!

For me Mitch and Jimi were the other side of each other’s coin! Forgive the clumsy metaphor but 

I think attunement was clear Mitch kept on coming back . . . . .  the mention of the recording of Electric Ladyland and Voodoo Chile and (Slight Return) and all with Steve W, Jack C and the boys is testament to where it could really work . . . . . . much missed

Don's Tunes

Mitch Mitchell: "Jimi and I had different musical tastes – he turned me on to Dylan lyrics and I used to play him John Coltrane and Roland Kirk – but we did see eye to eye in the bass player department. Noel, bless his heart, went to see Bob Dylan once at a gig in Ireland, and Bob told Noel that he liked his bass playing on Jimi’s recording of Bob’s All Along the Watchtower, which, of course, is really Jimi on bass. 

"It was just so much easier to make records with just Jimi and myself, because Jimi was one hell of a bass player. In actual fact, he played better bass when he played a right-handed bass upside down!" 

When Jimi played bass during a session, did it change your approach to the drums? 

Mitchell: "Most definitely. Jimi was so solid, I could actually play less and leave more space; those were some of the only times when I wasn’t compelled to overplay, at least until Billy came onto the scene. Jimi and I were always aware that we needed a funky, rock-solid bass player. I had some fantasies about really fattening up the bottom end, by getting Larry Young on organ, maybe Howard Johnson on tuba, along with a killer bassist. I wanted overkill, miles of low end! 

"I was once doing an album in New York and was asked who I’d like as a bassist on the session, so, being a bit of a wise guy, I said Chuck Rainey on electric bass and Richard Davis on standup. The next day, they were there! Richard had his lion-headed acoustic bass, and Chuck had his convertible Ampeg B- 15 amp and Fender Jazz Bass, and he parked himself right next to me. It was wonderful." 

While working on his previous studio effort, Electric Ladyland, Jimi had expressed in the press a strong desire to work with different musicians in the pursuit of new musical forms. 

Mitchell: "That’s true. Jimi and I had both become very disillusioned with the situation with the band. It was becoming increasingly difficult to break new ground. We encouraged each other to play with as many different people as possible, and there were a handful of people who had played with us in the studio and live, such as Buddy Miles, Steve Winwood, and Jack Casady. 

"The studio was where Jimi lived; in truth, if he could have lived in the studio 24 hours a day, he would have. The studio was a natural instrument for Jimi, one with which he possessed an uncanny ability to express himself." 

By Andy Aledort / Guitar World

Photo by Bruce Fleming

Remembering Mitch Mitchell (9 July 1946 – 12 November 2008)

 MITCH MITCHELL

Photo by  Linda McCartney

"Playing with Hendrix was no second-fiddle indignity for Mitchell but a challenge to be risen to, time and again. On a track like Manic Depression, it's as if he's about to be pitched off his drum seat over the top of the kit, propelled by the sheer tsunami of his drumming. He is almost the dominant force. By 1968, as Hendrix really began to experiment, bassist Noel Redding found himself marginalised and eventually jettisoned. Mitchell, however, rose again to the occasion, holding his own in the jam session with Hendrix and Steve Winwood that gave rise to Voodoo Chile. Even when Hendrix went the way many of his black followers had hoped he would and formed the African American trio Band of Gypsys, Mitchell was never out of the loop. On the last Hendrix recordings, he was part of a trio that included bassist Billy Cox. He worked with him to the end, and beyond. For on October 19, 1970, it was Mitchell's grievous duty to go in and lay down the studio drum part to Angel, over the guitars and vocals of his colleague who had died tragically just a month earlier, aged 27. The rising swell of cymbals that concludes the track feel like a final embrace with the ascended soul of his old friend. " - Guardian

Liner Notes | AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE - THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE by Jym Fahey

 THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE

AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE

Jimi Hendrix Experience Central Park NY, 1967 - Linda McCartney 

Jimi Hendrix had put the finishing touches on Are You Experienced, the group’s remarkable 1967 debut album, before he began recording new songs for what would ultimately become Axis: Bold As Love.  Less than nine months had passed since Chas Chandler had brought Jimi Hendrix to London in September 1966.  With Chandler installed as his manager and producer, the two formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding.  On the strength of early singles like “Hey Joe,” “Purple Haze,” and “The Wind Cries Mary,” the Experience had conquered England and Europe.  The group’s stunning performance at the June 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and the subsequent release of Are You Experienced won over American fans and clearly illustrated the magnitude of the trio’s capabilities.  While touring and other commitments would delay further Axis: Bold As Love recording sessions for the new album until October 1967, the unquenchable creative fire burning within the belly of the Experience would soon produce another gem.  Avidly gathered and explored by the public, the thirteen majestic songs of Axis: Bold As Love proved that Jimi Hendrix was no one album wonder.

Not satisfied with mining the same vein that had yielded the motherlode of Are You Experienced, the Experience kicked off their sophomore effort with a novelty step into the science fiction milieu that Jimi loved.  “EXP” featured a faux radio announcer, played by drummer Mitch Mitchell, interviewing Jimi posing as Paul Carusoe, an expert on alien life.  The track launched thirty-eight minutes of some of he most brilliant rock to be etched in vinyl the entire year.  It contains a phenomenal group of songs.  “Spanish Castle Magic,” “You Got Me Floatin’,” the title track, “Bold As Love,” and the now standard, “Little Wing”.  Few would attempt to argue the album’s timelessness.  The range of emotions and styles expressed throughout Axis equals those found on Are You Experienced, but there is a different quality about them.  The time between the initial sessions for the “Hey Joe” single to the final touches on “She's So Fine” for Axis was only a year.  The Experience had spent the time well.  From the full out rockers to softer poetic outings, Axis: Bold As Love was chock full of well crafted pop songs.

Chas Chandler’s contribution in that vein should not be overlooked.  Chas had learned a great deal about pop music structure as the bassist for the Animals, one of the most successful groups of the British invasion.  His knowledge was in full display on Are You Experienced, where he was clearly in charge.  It is to his credit that he recognized Jimi’s remarkable growth as a musician and composer.  By the Axis sessions he and Jimi were equal partners in creative matters.  His influence reined in some of Jimi’s more extravagant impulses that later reemerged with new discipline on Electric Ladyland.  The longest song on Axis, “If 6 Was 9” runs 5:32.  Of the other eleven songs, only “One Rainy Wish” and “Bold As Love” exceeded the three minute AM top forty radio barrier of the day.  Unquestionably, Chas had carried his message well.

Just as important in the history of the Jimi Hendrix Experience was how the band reacted to their incredible initial successes.  Many bands have found early success a distraction and a recipe for dissolution.  The Axis days for Jimi and the Experience, on the other hand, were some of the happiest in the short tempestuous life of the group.  That joy translated easily to disc and was clearly apparent throughout the sessions for the album.  The trio created a union that, on the surface, might have seemed unlikely, but one that used its disparate influences to form a union of three with a single soul.

Mitch Mitchell brought his love of jazz, and Philly Joe Jones in particular, to the table, and his adroit stickmanship and machine gun fills reflects that interest throughout Axis.  For example, Mitch’s breaks on “Wait Until Tomorrow” come right out of the hard bop book.  His brush work (at Noel’s suggestion) on “Up From The Skies” would be just as at home in a smoky jazz piece as on this funky science fiction rocker.

Noel Redding was a converted guitar player and brought a guitarist’s sensibilities and deftness to the bass.  His style pushed Jimi and Mitch into a tight union normally reserved for the tightest of bassist and drummer combinations.  This coalition was a key element on Axis.  Listen to the delicate interplay within “One Rainy Wish” founded on that well-established rhythmic rapport.  With “She’s So Fine,” Noel’s own composition, the bassist assumed the lead vocal, leading Jimi and Mitch through this charged rocker.  From start to finish, Noel’s offerings were an integral part of this fine album.

Jimi’s own passions involved the great bluesmen such as Buddy Guy, soulsters like Curtis Mayfield and jazzmen like Wes Montgomery.  Those influences are apparent all through the Axis: Bold As Love album sessions.  The soft rhythmic flow of “Little Wing” bears Curtis’ imprint and in Jimi’s opening rhythmic line to “Wait Until Tomorrow” we hear him tipping his hat to the R&B and Soul riffs he learned in his days on the chitlin circuit.  Ironically, though Jimi heard the intricate line clearly enough in his head, he had difficulty reproducing it in the studio, according to the engineer on the sessions, Eddie Kramer.  He obviously got it right eventually.

Kramer was another important part of the Axis effort.  He and Jimi had, by this time, forged an important kinship.  With Chandler’s full confidence and support, Kramer was astute enough to recognize Jimi’s understanding of mixing and catered to Hendrix’s suggestions.  Axis: Bold As Love was his second album with the Experience and he had developed an uncanny ability to grasp what Jimi had in his mind and was willing to work doggedly to achieve it on tape.  Jimi, especially when discussing the subtleties of sound, would often describe what he wanted to hear in terms of colors.  Eddie was able to develop a palette that Jimi could paint with.  And when Jimi said he dreamed of having his guitar sound like he was playing it underwater, Kramer, along with fellow Olympic studio engineer George Chkiantz, developed the technique of phasing to make that dream come true.  The coda at the end of the title track illustrates a remarkable use of the technique.

Axis was not an album which could be easily translated into live performance, nor was it intended to be.  In the first place, the songs had not been road tested like those on Are You Experienced.  They were built from the ground up in the studio and the various effects that were added to the album (including a glockenspiel on “Little Wing”) were not intended to be part of the group’s thrilling live gigs.  In fact only “Spanish Castle Magic” and sometimes “Little Wing” were ever regularly performed by the group.  In Jimi’s mind the two areas were completely separate.  On stage, Jimi’s message was entirely singular and he made the most of his opportunity to connect with his audience.  The recording studio required a different focus, a different way of communicating through his music.

Axis: Bold As Love almost became a failure to communicate.  After deciding on the thirteen tracks which would make the final cut, the firm of Hendrix, Kramer and Chandler began the laborious task of creating a final mix.  After finishing the job in the early hours of Halloween, 1967, Hendrix and Chas Chandler took the master tapes home to the apartment they shared.  Somehow, the unthinkable happened.  Jimi misplaced the mixes for the album’s first side.  Since the tapes had been removed before any safeties were made, their loss was truly a disaster.  The mixes had been made from four-track originals and their creation had been a performance unto itself.  Needless to say no one was happy with the task that faced them, remixing the half inch tapes and having to recreate what they had finished once already.  With the lucrative Christmas season fast approaching, and the album already scheduled for release, the mixing had to be accomplished in one night.

“If 6 Was 9” was the one track they just couldn’t seem to get right.  Each attempt had the team scratching their heads knowing that the sound wasn’t right.  Despite a number of attempts, neither Chandler, Hendrix, nor Kramer were sure as to how they had achieved the earlier mix.   Exasperated, they dispatched Noel in a cab to find a seven-and-a-half inch, three inch reel containing a rough mix from June that the bassist had at his apartment.  The tape turned out to be badly wrinkled and needed to be ironed in order to get it through the studio machine.  The mix was finally accomplished though, and beautifully so.  From then on, the high praise Chandler and Kramer enjoyed for their labor has always brought on a sardonic smile.  “If you only knew,” Chandler would often laugh.

For the listener, the extra effort was well worth it.  With Axis: Bold As Love Jimi and company had created a magnificent and groundbreaking album that has stood the test of time.  It remains not only a faithful document of its era, but it is just as relevant today as it was nearly thirty years ago.  Since its initial release, Axis: Bold As Love has remained both a critical and a fan favorite.  Though Jimi has been gone longer than he lived, we are fortunate to live in a time in which recordings keep his genius at our call.  Axis is definitive proof both of that genius and the magnitude of our loss.

– Jym Fahey

Please note this is the liner notes only. I do NOT post links to officially released albums ( or try very hard not to!) if there are legitimate ROIOs and/or out of print albums I will post links to these only.

'Out of print' is a more difficult area I grant you as some things go out of print in certain countries and you may find things available in the United States that are no longer available here and vice versa etc but if they are not available in my country of origin here in the UK or in Europe then I consider them worthy of linking to and if anyone has any objections to my posting things that have been commercially available then please ask nicely and I will remove the link. Also it should be understood that sometimes these seem to be available via Spotify and streaming services whereas the albums are no longer available. As particularly Spotify pays little to next to nothing for such services I believe they do NOT hold copyright to the works made available these belong still to the artist and would strongly suggest checking out brilliant services like Bandcamp for things being available to purchase or to stream as THEY pay the artists considerly more than the dread spotify.

Ultimately I strongly recommend searching for artist's own websites where things are available and may be only available there and suggest you support their work directly. My sharing music here is a form of advertising and it is my strongly held view that sharing of ROIOs contributes an enormous amount to artists' pockets than some despicable service like Spotify ever does. It has made its owner a billionaire and has he written any work of any note? No! (the Author)