Jimi Hendrix: Bold As Love ( 4CD + Blu-ray)

Recent history suggests the Jimi Hendrix estate would seem to be approaching the iconic guitarist's three original studio albums in reverse order. Electric Ladyland (Reprise, 1968) was issued in suitably extravagant form in 2018, fifty years after its original release. Now, Bold As Love (Reprise, 1967), simultaneously follows and predates the previous entry in the man's oeuvre, perhaps as means to suitably memorialize the 1967 debut in coming months.

Four CDs (or five LPs) plus Blu-ray constitute a deluxe compendium featuring the original stereo and mono mixes of the baker's dozen cuts, remastered from the original mixes created by Hendrix, plus an additional 40 alternative versions, unreleased studio takes, demos, live tracks and television appearances from the album's gestation and recording period.

As such, this particular array of recordings mirrors what was arguably the most concentrated period of work in the archetypal guitar hero's career. He was playing shows with the Experience on the weekends after working in the studio during the week, so the alignment of concentration in both settings contributes to the continuity redolent in this package of vault exhumations.

Rather than evincing any sense of fatigue from overwork, the Jimi Hendrix sounds flush with confidence and imagination, befitting the prospective sophomore album's appearance just seven months after the debut. The fury of the bandleader's solo at the rideout of the title song may be in lieu of more extensive overdubbing for the same of time efficiency, but it serves the same thrilling purpose of reinventing the electric guitar, even now some half-century later.

The tangibly lighthearted attitude renders "XP" the most successful of Jimi Hendrix tongue-in-cheek pieces, perhaps because it is the most abbreviated (in contrast to bonafide 'songs' like "Astro Man"). Regardless, the whimsy evinces itself more vividly and with some purpose in the regular panning of guitars across the stereo spectrum on a cut such as "Spanish Castle Magic" or the lead vocal criss-cross on "One Rainy Wish."

Such features subsequently became cliched and are perhaps rendered even more so in the ATMOS mix. Those aural touches are noticeably absent from the arguably more dense (and redundant?) mono version, which was produced, like the rest of this compendium, by original recording engineer Eddie Kramer and author/archivist John McDermott, and benefits from mixing assistance from with co-engineer Chandler Harrold. It is well to note that Hendrix manager Chas Chandler's own fastidious supervision of the original recordings—often contrary to the artists' more free-wheeling inclinations—is key to the overall potency of numbers as comparatively low-key as "One Rainy Wish."

The copious notes included in the forty-page booklet of prose and photos largely pertain to the technical aspects of the recordings. Still, given Jimi Hendrix's well-documented perfectionism, minute differences like those within "Burning Of The Midnight Lamp (Take 30)" render the observations themselves only slightly less fascinating than the multiple recordings of that number sans vocals. Or, for that matter, the untitled instrumentals, of which there are two, plus an 'untitled guitar experiment;' such entries pique the curiosity about their subsequent development had time allowed.

Would that Bold As Love's cover graphics were designed similar to the 1993 reissues that featured alternate displays of imagery. Nevertheless, the drawing by a five-year old Hendrix is intriguing as it stands (and certainly well- intentioned), while the die-cut sleeve with gold foil lettering enclosing the disc/book enclosure precludes any quick perusal of the artwork that might lead a casual musiclover to wonder if this collection was yet another in the preponderance of unauthorized titles in the marketplace.

Better to emblazon the front with the colorful likes of the album as it first came out (or a slight variation thereof). Shorn of much, if not most, of the image-mongering on the debut Are You Experienced? (Reprise, 1967) debut, this second effort by the Experience carries even more substance, right down to bassist Noel Redding's Beatlesque "She's So Fine:" the wildly imaginative guitar work is proof JImi did not save all his ideas for his own compositions.

And, as depicted throughout the eleven live performances on the fourth disc here (in acceptable if not sterling sonics), he hardly used them all up in the studio either. But neither did the 'West Coast Seattle Boy' relegate his ingenuity to hard rock: as was the case throughout his solo career, Hendrix devoted some of his most impassioned and detailed musicianship to balladry like "The Wind Cries Mary."

What is most remarkable there, however, is that his playing there, with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Redding, is of a piece with the ephemeral likes of "Foxey Lady," at least in terms of the threesome's streamlined unity. This is not the ensemble extensively retooling material with which they were bored—see Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival (Sony Music/ Legacy Recordings, 2015)—but the seeds were being sown here in passages such as the ferocious coda to "I Don't Live Today."

A little more than eighteen months from the 60th anniversary of the release of Jimi Hendrix Experience's first album, Bold As Love engenders mind-boggling possibilities in the minds of both the aficionados and the curious collectors. The potential inherent in applying a comprehensive view of that LP comparable to this one (as well as its aforementioned predecessor) could theoretically create the definitive timeline of the late guitar icon's coincidental rise to fame and first burst of creativity.

In the meantime, wayward cosmetics of the packaging aside, this archive release lives up to its title and will thus certainly sustain interest far beyond the foreseeable future

***** Special thanks to Scott for his historical insights.

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