First Rays of the New Rising Sun

by Jimi Hendrix

Overview

Posthumous reconstructions of unfinished works are inherently dangerous, principally because even the most capable scholar or producer can only make, at best, an educated guess as to how the work in question would have been completed. Indeed, in dealing with some such pieces, you're sometimes lucky to get the work of the artist claimed (the Mozart Symphony No. 37 is a case in point -- it doesn't exist; the piece once labeled Symphony No. 37 and attributed to Mozart is now known to have been authored by Michael Haydn); and while there's no question that the songs on this CD were recorded by Jimi Hendrix, even the people who worked on the sides with him can't say which songs would have ended up on the finished version of First Rays of the New Rising Sun (assuming that he even ended up using that title for the album), or what embellishments he would have added to any of them in the course of completing them, or even if he might not have totally reconsidered such matters as tempo and approach to any of them. In the end, First Rays of the New Rising Sun is a little like any of the various "performing editions" of Gustav Mahler's never-completed Symphony No. 10, in that what's here is impressive, but may have little to do with what would finally have been heard by the public, had the artist lived to finish it -- we don't know if Mahler would have scored a particular passage for horns or strings, or Hendrix would have put another, different lead guitar part, or a second (or third) guitar part on to any of these songs, or added choruses, or re-thought his vocal performance? Hendrix had gone so long between albums, seemingly adrift stylistically at various times, that there's no telling exactly what direction he was finally going to end up working toward. All of that said, this is a superb album, and a worthy if very different, earthier successor to Electric Ladyland's psychedelic excursions -- the later tracks, ironically enough, cut at that album's long promised and long-delayed studio namesake -- and also show him working in some genuinely new directions. For starters, Hendrix's voice emerges here as a genuinely powerful instrument in its own right -- his voice was never as exposed in the mix of his songs as it is here; partly this is because Hendrix and engineer Eddie Kramer never finished embellishing the songs, or completed the final mixes. But whatever the reasons, the change is refreshing -- Hendrix's voice is not only powerful and expressive throughout, but a more melodic instrument than it seemed on his earlier releases; indeed, hearing these sides is a bit like listening to those middle-years Muddy Waters recordings when Chess Records had the Chicago blues legend abandon his guitar playing in favor of concentrating on his singing; the results might not be what all fans expected, but it sure sounds good, because it turns out that Hendrix had an expressive voice and was also moving his music into new areas that were stimulating him. A lot of the material here shows Hendrix, for the first time, moving his songs specifically into a black music idiom, embracing R&B and funk elements in his singing, playing, and overall sound; some of it could qualify as Hendrix's extension of his years playing with the Isley Brothers. Songs here such as "Freedom," "Izabella," "Angel," and "Dolly Dagger" show him finally acknowledging that musical world that he had largely by-passed, and the closer, "Belly Button Window," is one of his most successful traditional bluesy outings. The psychedelic workouts are more jam-like and experimental, and the ballads are prettier and even more dreamlike in their background soundscapes. "Astro Man" also captures a light moment for the artist, as he opens the guitar workout with a quote from the Mighty Mouse theme song, sotto voce beneath the guitar. And speaking of the guitar, despite the prominence of Hendrix's vocals on a lot of this album, the guitar playing is pretty much up to the standard that one would expect, if not necessarily the final versions of some of the songs. Most of the material on First Rays of the New Rising Sun surfaced among the various posthumous Hendrix LPs issued from the 1970s through the early 1990s, but a lot of it was tampered with, mostly in the form of posthumous overdubbed embellishments supervised by producer Alan Douglas -- all of that has been stripped off and the multi-track masters retrieved and restored. What he would have eventually come up with and released as his next musical statement is anyone's guess, but this gets you as close to that answer -- and that vision -- as you're ever likely to get. It is the best representation of where the songs were at the point that he died, and it's fully competitive, in terms of merits and surprises, with his trio of completed studio albums. ~ Bruce Eder & Cub Koda

Product Details

Release Date:	05/10/2024
Label:	Sony Legacy
UPC:	0196588315718
Rank:	4292

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Freedom
2. Izabella
3. Night Bird Flying
4. Angel
5. Room Full of Mirrors
6. Dolly Dagger
7. Ezy Ryder
8. Drifting
9. Beginnings

Disc 2

10. Stepping Stone
11. My Friend
12. Straight Ahead
13. Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)
14. Earth Blues
15. Astro Man
16. In From the Storm
17. Belly Button Window

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jimi Hendrix   Primary Artist,Vocals,Vocals (Background),Bass,Piano,Guitar
Billy Cox   Guest Artist,Bass,Vocals (Background)
Buzzy Linhart   Guest Artist,Vibraphone
Steve Winwood   Guest Artist,Vocals (Background)
The Ronettes   Guest Artist,Vocals (Background)
Stephen Stills   Guest Artist,Piano
Buddy Miles   Guest Artist,Drums,Vocals (Background)
Jimmy Mayes   Drums
Albert Allen   Vocals (Background)
Chris Wood   Vocals (Background)
James Mayes   Drums
Albert "Ghetto Fingers" Allen   Vocals (Background)
Arthur Allen   Vocals (Background)
Emmeretta Marks   Vocals (Background)
Juma Sultan   Percussion
Paul Caruso   Harmonica
Billy Armstrong   Percussion
Ken Pine   Guitar (12 String)
Mitch Mitchell   Drums

Technical Credits

John McDermott   Liner Notes,Remastering Supervisor
Bill Nitopi   Design
Jimi Hendrix   Mixing,Composer,Producer
George Marino   Remastering
Bob Hughes   Engineer,Overdub Engineer
Jack Adams   Engineer
Linda McCartney   Photography
Barry Wentzell   Cover Design
Walter Looss   Photography
Jim Cummins   Photography
Mitch Mitchell   Producer,Mixing
Eddie Kramer   Mixing,Engineer,Producer,Photography,Remastering,Drum Recordings,Overdub Engineer
John Jansen   Mixing,Producer
Richie Havens   Composer
Michael Jang   Photography
Elliott Landy   Photography
Chuck Boyd   Photography
Smay Vision   Design
Daniel Tehaney   Cover Design
Mike McGettigan   Photography
Tony Bongiovi   Engineer
Charles Mingus   Composer
Janie Hendrix   Remastering Supervisor
Bob Cotto   Engineer
Ted Kessell   Photography
Baron Wolman   Photography