Live in Maui (Live In Maui, 1970)

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Released on 20-11-2020 by Legacy Recordings
Main artists: Jimi Hendrix
Genre: Rock

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An ill-fated movie gave birth to a much more memorable concert. Coming to screens in 1972, the feature film Rainbow Bridge (which was hugely influenced by Easy Rider) awkwardly detailed the adventures of a New York model on her way to Hawaii. Badly filmed and using non-professional actors who barely knew their lines, this strange piece of cinematography partly owes its existence to Michael Jeffrey, Jimi Hendrix’s manager, who produced a large part of it when he was given the soundtrack rights (which was meant to contain new tracks from Voodoo Child). The filming took place in 1970. It was disjointed and chaotic. The only interesting thing about it is the finale, when an audience gathers together on Haleakala volcano to watch a Jimi Hendrix Experience performance. It comes in the form of a montage that lasts just over 15 minutes (17 minutes, to be precise). Even before it was exploited, Rainbow Bridge was ridiculed. It flopped at the box office. It was an absolute Z movie. Almost fifty years after this dismal failure, the documentary Music, Money, Madness... Jimi Hendrix in Maui takes another look at the birth of the project. It’s a great opportunity to rediscover their performance on July 30th 1970, the year before the film was shot, a small part of which was later used at the end of the film.

The band performed the setlist twice in pretty strange conditions – the audience was 400 people strong and were placed in front of the stage according to their star signs. Although they had ‘Experience’ in the name, this wasn’t the original band since Billy Cox (who played on Band of Gypsys) plays bass while Mitch Mitchell gets back behind the drums after a few months away from the guitar hero. There was a very strong wind which made the recording (and the concert itself) difficult because of all the blowy noises in the mics on stage. The rest of the equipment used for the event was poor quality. Despite these technical conditions, the band gave a masterful performance. The new documentary presents the perfect opportunity to restore the performance’s credability, thanks to a double live album that comes with the film, even if they did cheat a little. In 1971, Mitch Mitchell re-recorded all his drums parts at the Electric Lady studio in one take with the help of his faithful sound engineer Eddie Kramer, who was behind the work’s restoration here.

It’s also an occasion for fans to finally discover live tracks that would appear on his posthumous albums such as Dolly Dagger and Ezy Ryder, alongside the unmissable Voodoo Child (Slight Return), Fire, Purple Haze and Spanish Castle Magic. This concert marked one of the last magical moments on stage for the singer who died less than two months later. Throughout the twenty tracks lasting over 1h40m, Jimi comes across as inspired and ready to grab all that life has to offer. And though the wind was picking up on Maui, the real storm came from the speakers. © Chief Brody/Qobuz

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Live in Maui (Live In Maui, 1970)

Jimi Hendrix

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Chuck Wein Introduction (Live In Maui, 1970)