BAND OF GYPSYS

Let's go straight to the point:Band of Gypsys is the best live rock n'roll album ever made.To hear a recording of Hendrix' live performances,never doing the same thing twice and still managing to be unparalleled all the time in therms of guitar improvisation,is always a joy.Mitch Mitchell,his Experience drummer,was almost as equally gifted.But the man behind the drum kit in this 1970 new year's eve performances in New York was Buddy Miles,who somehow completed and brought out Jimi's vein in american black music.As a result,what we hear is an absolutly brilliant mixture of blues,funk,soul, and elements of jazz,at least in therms of structure.

Jimi might not have being on a good mood that day,as it is popularly known.His guitar sounds like a demon on acid.By tuning it on the key of D,he managed to bend and vibrate the strings in a ferocious way.Hendrix evoques a napalm bombing out of a stratocaster,and thankfully this recording exists 40 years later to prove why,according to Neil Young,"no one was even in the same building as that guy".The sounds that popped in his head at the spur of the moment,and which he flawlessly gave physical dimention with his fingers,may be one's subject of study for years.And still,not even the most skifull guitarrist will ever be able to plainly reproduce what is heard on record.

Buddy Miles,with his Motown-stile singing,is also a shining star here.His contribution to the setlist,Changes,is a first-class James Brown inspired funk groove.The centerpiece of the album,Machine Gun,is where the spotlights turn completely to Hendrix.In a 12 minute lysergic ritual,we hear his guitar as a force of nature,thundering and roaring through the Marshall amplifiers in a caotic,atrocious,unearthly powerfull way that would never be heard again after he was gone.

This album is truly what rock n'roll is all about,or was at it's best moment in time.Not a proper style of music,but a mixture of many.Hendrix drinks from outside influences to formulate the purest rock brand,wich was his own and 100% original.What makes it a true work of art is the priceless spontaniety of the whole thing, which was definetly in the air in the late 60's,but no one captured as well as Jimi.To go on writing just how disturbingly genious was this man is pointless.All of his albums speak for themselves,and maybe this one does so best of all.