PURPLE - CELEBRATING JIMI HENDRIX

Nguyen Le most commercially successful album till now. Jimmy Hendrix is one of the most popular artist in the world, and his musical legacy was re-covered hundred times. There are better covers and terrible covers, but generally no one is interested to hear few more Hendrix covers, isn't it?

With my hate to copy-cats and imitators, this album is rare one covers album I not only enjoy a lot, but would like to recommend it to other listeners!

French-Vietnamese guitarist Nguen Le is known by his original mix of European and Oriental fusion. And he demonstrates his abilities on "Purple" album in full. Well-known Hendrix compositions (mostly - psychedelic blues-rock) are transferred to different field there. Excellent guitarist, using minimalistic sound and help of skilled African, Asian and Balkan musicians, reworks Hendrix legacy without destroying it.

As a result, you have full collection of songs you will recognize easily, but will be surprised how different they could be played! One of most accessible Nguyen Le album contains multicultural (and multi linguistic) mix of Oriental blues, World fusion and jazz, all based on classical Hendrix repertoire. Interesting, that having three different vocalists, all album's vocal is female (Hendrix songs!).

It's a bit pity that this not very experimental but extremely interesting and pleasant album isn't known enough. Really recommended!

My rating is 4+!