Jimi Hendrix - Machine Gun: The Fillmore East 1st show 31/12/1969 - Hybrid SACD

2016 release

In addition to the Machine Gun title track, one of Hendrix's last classics, the 11-song set — collected here in its entirety and in order — includes songs such as "Hear My Train A Comin'" and "Ezy Ryder" that he was still fine-tuning at the time of his death on Sept. 18, 1970.

The original Band of Gypsys album included Hendrix's first work with his new trio, rounded out by bassist Billy Cox and drummer Buddy Miles, after the breakup of the Experience in 1969. Machine Gun: The Filmore East First Show 12/31/69 chronicles the group's first-ever live performance.

"We didn't know what to expect from the audience, and the audience didn't know what to expect from us, but from the time we hit that first note, they were in awe," Cox notes in a press release announcing the set. "You had Jimi Hendrix, a drummer who had been with the Electric Flag and Wilson Pickett, and I was the new kid on the block."

Measured alongside his triumphs at Monterey Pop and Woodstock, Hendrix's legendary Fillmore East concerts illustrated a critical turning point in a radiant career that boasted of indefinite possibilities.

Album producers Experience Hendrix L.L.C. is led by the team of Janie Hendrix, Eddie Kramer and John McDermott.

Kramer was Jimi Hendrix's primary recording engineer; Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69 was mixed from the original 1-inch 8-track master tapes by Eddie Kramer and mastered by Grammy Award-winning engineer Bernie Grundman.