First of all, the Experience do not appear in this album. Instead, Buddy Miles and Billy Cox fill in for drums and bass respectively. The two provide Jimi with a much looser, funkier rhythm section than the Experience. As for Jimi, there isn't much to say... All you need to know is that Band of Gypsys contains some of the best guitar work of his career...if not THE best of his career. "Who Knows", and "Power to Love" are two standout tracks. But the masterpiece of the album is the 12 minute anti-war jam "Machine Gun". It's a song that has to be heard to believed. I still remember the first time I heard it....I was floored. The entire album is filled with enough passion and intensity to rival that of John Coltrane's Live at the Village Vanguard or Live at Birdland.

It is true that there have been hundreds of fantastic guitarists since the death of Jimi Hendrix. Many of them have much more speed and dexterity than Jimi. Still others are university trained and extremely knowledgeable in music theory. But I have yet to hear a guitarist play something as passionate and emotional as "Machine Gun". Band of Gypsys is well worth your money for that song alone.


Hendrix - Band Of Gypsys   August 22, 2006
J P Ryan (Waltham, Massachusetts United States)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

That - the title of this review - is what it said on the spine and green Capitol label of the very first copy (and first Henrix album) I ever bought, which was originally released in April 1970 - eighteen long months after the Jimi Hendrix Experience's third and final studio album, "Electric Ladyland." The group was already fracturing by then, though the soldiered on in the studio and on tour through a final US date June 30, 1969, after which a frustrated Noel Redding split for England and Fat Mattress (Reprise collected eight of the group's best known tracks, added four unreleased in the US, and a "giant poster" for "Smash Hits" that July). Many factors and motivations - financial, political, cultural, personal, musical - likely led to the short lived Band Of Gypsys. Jimi had already produced a Buddy Miles solo album and worked with the drummer (noteably on part of "Ladyland"). Billy Cox was an old Army buddy, fine bassist, with no ambitions to write songs - he patiently worked with Hendrix for over a year during 1969 - 70 as the guitarist developed new songs and opened his dream studio, almost until the end (Cox split after being dosed with PCP at one of Hendrix's final Euro dates). And, perhaps symbolically if not intentionally, BOG was an all black band.
1970 was a year in which live albums were in vogue, and recording technology had progressed sufficiently since the mid-60s (recall the Brit Invasion hysteria that dominates "Live Kinks" or the Stones' "Got Live") to make a good live album a desired addition to any important artist's body of work. Reprise issued another live Hendrix set (the Montery Pop album, with one side devoted to Otis Redding) four months after BOG, as Jimi was still finishing up his next - posthumous - studio album, and it had become evident that the studio project was unlikely to be issued before 1971 (even had Hendrix lived). And in 1970 classic live sets came out by the Stones, Who, Cream, Doors, Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, and others. What was different about "Band Of Gypsys" was that it contained all new material. Buddy Miles possessed none of Mitch Mitchell's inventive, jazz-influenced chops that interacted so perfectly with Hendrix, but he was a solid, funky, visually arresting timekeeper who during the period was pretty famous himself thanks to his tenure with the Electric Flag, and would record fine albums with John McLaughlin and Santana as well as several successful solo sets. BOG was thus also, almost, a supergroup, to use the jargon of the times. If not as essential as the three studio Experience albums, or "Cry Of Love"/"First Rays", Hendrix was hardly marking time here, expanding his songwriting style as well as his sonic arsenal on the classics "Machine Gun" and "Who Knows."
The original album sounded a bit drab, and if the Capitol (1995) cd was an improvement in clarity - not warmth or presence - the more recent Experience Hendrix version is the best we're likely to get on compact disc. But I'm reviewing this to recommend spending a few extra bucks on the numbered limited edition issued by Classic Records after the most recent CD. This gorgeous piece is well worth tracking down. Mastered using all analog transfer equipment from the actual masters by Eddie Kramer and George Marino (their initials etched in the black inner groove of the disc). For Hendrix fans, I promise - it blows the cd and the original vinyl out of the water. Sonically a rather grey recording is now an exciting listening experience: warm, detailed, alive, with an increase in image depth and definition, it actually lives up to the cliche "like hearing it for the first time." And the physical thing itself is a beauty - the heavy cardboard stock used on the cover is thicker and like the disc heavier than the first edition original - to which it is faithful but much superior. (By the way, Classic also issued "Axis" in its rare mono mix, which is not better than the stereo version but an interesting contrast for fanatics).
Lots more funk-influenced, and to over simplify 'social conciousness' lyrics generally supplant both the "Foxy Lady" come ons and the spiritual and cosmic preoccupations of "Ladyland," it's fascinating to hear Hendrix emphasisizing wah-wah funk and singing to women about asserting themselves indepenent of any man. Only on the finale, "We Got To Live Together" is this set anything less than terrific, and side one of course is even better than that.
By the time this album was originally issued, the Band Of Gypsys had dissolved. Hendrix brought Mitch Mitchell back, and kept Cox on, for the next round of tours and recording sessions.



Unparalled in performance and imagination, the best ever!   September 26, 1998
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Hendrix takes a major detour with the Band of Gypsys with performances which must have stunned and enthralled those who saw it live! And almost 30 years later, the music is still alive and well. This album has it all, funk, rock, blues, and jazz....and a rhythm section in Buddy Miles and Billy Cox that really makes it happen....Each of the songs is truly unique, masterful in structure and presentation (talk about improvization). Machine Gun will always be a brilliant work of guitar artistry and emotion (and the "war" still rages on today)....Who Knows welcomes you to the new Jimi, Them Changes is the definitive version, Power of Soul rockets you into space funk, and We Gotta Live Together closes it all in the only way possible. But for me, a Message of Love is the most intense piece in its musical texture and movement and its lyrical message of equality (for women) which was (and is) truly cutting edge (and probably missed by many)! From start to finish, this one captures it all. By the end, you've certainly taken a "run with" Jimi. Any Hendrix fan should have this work in the collection (regardless of Jimi's take on the whole affair). It's a "must have" for any musician. And whether you're a bassist, drummer, or guitarist, if you really want to play "Jimi", learn to play this! ...have you ever been "Experienced", well I have!!!