Music and Recording Reviews

Jimi Hendrix: Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision
Experience Hendrix/Legacy Recordings (LP). 2024.
Janie Hendrix, Eddie Kramer, John McDermott, prods.; Eddie Kramer, Chandler Harrod, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****

The new-look Jimi Hendrix Experience (Billy Cox on bass; Mitch Mitchell on drums) recorded a remarkable amount of material between June and August of 1970 at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. The sessions were intended to become First Rays of the New Rising Sun, a double album follow-up to 1968's Electric Ladyland. Hendrix would never complete that record as intended, as he passed the following month.

Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision captures what happened in the studio that summer. The box set is composed of five LPs and a booklet with unpublished photos, Hendrix's handwritten song drafts, and sleeve notes. Much of the material here is unfinished, often populated more with guitar doodlings than complete thoughts. But each expression reflects that, even as he played with creative notions, his mastery of the guitar was always present.

The music ranges from four-track demo recordings of "Valleys of Neptune" and "Heaven Has No Sorrow," alternate arrangements of new songs such as "Come Down Hard on Me" and "Belly Button Window," live-in-the-studio takes of "Tune X/In from the Storm," "Astro Man," and "The Long Medley," and a 26-minute spontaneous exploration of "Beginnings," "Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)," "Keep On Groovin'," and "Freedom." Additionally, the box set presents many of the mixes the guitarist completed with engineer Eddie Kramer before leaving to begin a European tour on August 30.

The mixing and mastering of these tracks are stunning. The sound is crisp, clear, and very present. Dig deep into "Valleys of Neptune," where Hendrix, joined by Steve Winwood on electric piano, delivers an instrumental groove that will just make you wonder what else he had in store for the world.—Ray Chelstowski

Wilderado: Talker
Bright Antenna Records (LP). 2024. Chad Copelin, James McAlister, prods.; Chad Copelin, eng.
Performance *****
Sonics *****

Oklahoma-based trio Wilderado (vocalist Max Rainer, guitarist Tyler Wimpee, and drummer Justin Kila) follow up their 2021 debut with a 12-track collection of songs that deliver the sonic intimacy of a church confessional with the ability to quickly open wide. It's a balance that producer/engineer Chad Copelin masterfully strikes, with songs that reflect even more writing depth, as some were created with the help of touring cohorts, the UK band Flyte.

The songs are a unique mix of folk rock with punk influences and singer-songwriter depth. The sound sits somewhere between Mt. Joy and Pete Droge, with songs that deal with endless searching, loneliness, and escapism. The secret to what makes this work so well is that the lyrics are rhythmic and direct. They are supported in bridges and choruses with airtight harmonies that lift these songs and give them an appropriate kind of heft.

The tracks were clearly built from the ground up with just a vocal and a guitar. But from there, the arrangements take hold and the songs modestly step forward with a weight and a commitment that is perfectly softened by electric guitar parts that are melodic and that bellow. Wimpee brings these Bradley Barn moments forward with care, and they add a dimension that is truly southern. That not only broadens the scope of the band's sound but offers so much more to explore.

The track "Simple" demonstrates how the basic core structure of their songs provides a foundation for all of these added elements to effortlessly swirl about. They wrap the song with so many colors and make this trio sound more like an orchestra.

In the end, this band has an appropriate kinship to others from Oklahoma. You can hear whispers of J.J. Cale and the limitless sense of creativity expressed by the music of The Flaming Lips. As Rainer has said, it's an album that "feels like home."—Ray Chelstowski

Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens: American Railroad
Nonesuch 075597897586 (CD, reviewed as 24/96). 2024. Rhiannon Giddens, Jody Elff, Kaoru Watanabe, co-prods.; Jody Elff, eng./mix.
Performance *****
Sonics *****

It's past time to break out of the classical box and embrace music that speaks with classic universality. Such was cellist Yo-Yo Ma's intent when, in 1998, he founded the Silkroad Ensemble "as a reminder that even as rapid globalization resulted in division, it brought extraordinary possibilities for working together." Now, under its new artistic director Rhiannon Giddens, Silkroad Ensemble celebrates "a musical language founded in difference, a metaphor for the benefits of a more connected world."

American Railroad amplifies the voices of four main contributors to America's identity-changing railroad: African American, Irish, Chinese, and Indigenous immigrants. Superbly recorded live in Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall and Sonoma's Green Music Center, its 13 tracks honor America's multicultural musical heritage.

Ensemble lap-steel guitarist and vocalist Pura Fé Crescioni's short opening invocation is an audiophile's dream. Invoking memories of the man who once went room-to-room at audio shows, playing recordings of railroad trains as an ultimate sonic test, it segues into Giddens's extremely powerful melding of "Swannanoa Tunnel" with "Steel-Driving Man." As she memorializes one of the railroad's early tragedies, Giddens's voice haunts with its power and unconventional beauty. The medley also introduces us to Silkroad's unique blend of Eastern and Western instruments—including Giddens's fiddle, Sandeep Das's tabla, Haruka Fujii's percussion, Francesco Turrisi's frame drums, and Kaoru Watanabe's Ojime-daiko.

Many other composer/instrumentalists, including pipa virtuoso Wu Man and jazz great Cécile McLorin Salvant, speak with equal beauty and clarity. I cannot recommend this instant classic highly enough.—Jason Victor Serinus