(Blues Rock, Rock) [6xLP] [24/96] Jimi Hendrix - Guitar Giants Vol.1-3 (Curtis Knight & The Squires, The RSVP/PPX Sessions) - 1983, FLAC (image+.cue)

This is the cream of Jimi Hendrix, when he was in his prime. Most of these titles were recorded in July and August of 1967. The unusual thing about this is the fact that Jimi recorded these in defiance of "The Establishment", because of problems in Court, which have recently been settled -February 1973, and were therefore "Sub-judice". Jimi had already established himself as "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" prior to this date and the idea was that he would return to the way he originally wanted to record with Curtis Knight. Here he was, already a Superstar with a group called "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" and we find him recording, in defiance of this group name, with Curtis Knight, with whom he originally started the "Jimi Hendrix Sound".

The "Jimi Hendrix Sound" was originally created by Ed Chalpin, who produced Jimi Hendrix for the first time (Picture 1 shows the very first Jimi Hendrix recording session, showing Curtis Knight, Jimi Hendrix and Ed Chalpin, 1965). In 1967, although there were Court proceedings against him at the time, Jimi felt it important enough to go to Ed Chalpin's own studios in New York, where he was originally created because the atmosphere was such that he felt he could create to the best of his ability and would receive constructive help and direction from Ed Chalpin. If this represented an experiment on his part, it must have been fantastically successful, as far as he was concerned, because one month later he went to Ed Chalpin's apartment at 2:00 a.m. in the morning with Curtis Knight, and insisted that they again record in Ed Chalpin's Studio, Dimensional Sound, in New York.

For those people who are interested in the supernatural and the occult, as Jimi was, one of the songs, which was recorded at that session, was "The Ballad Of Jimi" (Guitar Giants - Jimi Hendrix Vol. 2). This particular song predicts his death, five years from the first time he recorded it to the exact month and time of his death, and the last three lines read as follows "Five years, this he said, is not gone, is just dead". For those who are sceptical about this, they may check the original recording released by Decca at that time. This song was issued as a single by Decca in 1970. Jimi recorded this title twice. Once in 1965-6, then again in 1967.

Among the titles recorded are "Hush Now" (Guitar Giants - Jimi Hendrix Vol. 2), "Love, Love" (Guitar Giants - Jimi Hendrix Vol.2), "Flashing"(Guitar Giants - Jimi Hendrix Vol. 2), "Day Tripper" (Guitar Giants - Jimi Hendrix Vol. 3), "Level" (Guitar Giants • Jimi Hendrix Vol. 3). It is of particular interest since it was one of the first times Jimi ever used the "Wah Wah Pedal" on his guitar. If you listen closely you can hear how Jimi makes his guitar talk with Curtis Knight adding to it with his voice. Although Jimi does not appear as lead singer, he can be heard as supporting voice to Curtis on some tracks.

At this time we take special note of an extra feature of this three albums which is two titles called "How Would You Feel" (Guitar Giants - Jimi Hendrix Vol. 2) and "You Don't Want Me" (Guitar Giants - Jimi Hendrix Vol. 3, these were the origin of "The Jimi Hendrix Sound". We enclose pictures of this session to compare his appearance. These are his two very first commercial titles which were on introduction to the psychedelic, acid rock, hard rock, sound, what Jimi and Ed Chaplin created and which is so popular today. Throughout these recordings, although their recordings, although there were other musicians present, Jimi re-recorded all parts himself, through the process of over-dubbing, thus eliminating all other performances with the exception of the drummer. He also overdubbed as a Vocal Group.

We show pictures of Jimi when he did the 1967 recording session. You can readily and easily recognise his 1967 identity by his dress, compared with the 1965 pictures. More important, I have never seen pictures shot of Jimi Hendrix which have captured the happiness of this star and the reader will judge this for himself. For the collectors of Jimi Hendrix, we enclose other shots of Jimi, one playing the guitar with his teeth in 1966, a gimmick which later proved to be immediately recognizeable as Jimi's trade mark.

The fact that Curtis Knight does the lead singing on this album was by Jimi's own instruction as he believed in his guitar as a sound and in Curtis's voice to supplement the whole psychedelic picture. Today's fans know Jimi mostly as a guitarist and that was the way Jimi and Ed Chalpin originated the "New Era". It is rumoured that Jimi was unhappy with the way things were going (after this session) and in my opinion this album probably was, and is, the last of Jimi's recordings produced in the way he wanted.

To Jimi's fans: Did you ever see Jimi looking as happy as he does in these photographs?

The majority of time of these LP's, were recorded in 1967. After Jimi's stardom. The following titles were not recorded in 1967. They were recorded in 1965-6:
"Don't Accuse Me" (Guitar Giants - Jimi Hendrix Vol. 2), "Welcome Home" (Guitar Giants - Jimi Hendrix Vol. 1), "Knock Yourself Out" (Guitar Giants - Jimi Hendrix Vol. 1). "You Don't Want Me" (Guitar Giants - Jimi Hendrix Vol. 3),"Hornets’ Nest" (Guitar Giants - Jimi Hendrix Vol. 2), "How Would You Feel" (Guitar Giants - Jimi Hendrix Vol. 2).Also, you can see Dick Rowe in one picture, posed with Jimi, Curtis, and Ed Chalpin. Dick Rowe was present during the 1967 recording session, and is famous for being the Head of Production in Decca-England, and the discoverer of the Rolling Stones.

[url=http://www.discogs.com/label/666699-Guitar-Giants]http://www.discogs.com/label/666699-Guitar-Giants[/url]

EXPERIENCE HENDRIX L.L.C. AND LEGACY RECORDINGS TO RELEASE YOU CAN’T USE MY NAME: CURTIS KNIGHT & THE SQUIRES (FEATURING JIMI HENDRIX) THE RSVP/PPX SESSIONS ON MARCH 24

1965-1967 Recordings Showcase Hendrix’s Brilliance Just Before His Ascent to Stardom

February 18, 2015 – New York, NY - Experience Hendrix L.L.C. and Legacy Recordings are releasing You Can’t Use My Name: Curtis Knight & The Squires (Featuring Jimi Hendrix) The RSVP/PPX Sessions – the first in a series that presents these recordings in their original context. The specially priced fourteen-track collection, taken from sessions in 1965 and 1966 [plus one July 1967 recording], will be available on CD and 150 gram LP on March 24.

In the mid 1960s, before launching a solo career that has profoundly influenced and altered the course of popular music, Jimi Hendrix was a little known sideman, working for short periods with a variety of artists including the Isley Brothers, Don Covay, Little Richard, and the Harlem-based R&B combo Curtis Knight & The Squires.

Ed Chalpin was an entrepreneur and record producer who founded PPX International, Inc. in 1960. He had created a lucrative business by recording cover versions of top US hits for foreign record companies, who then overdubbed translated lyrics. In addition to creating remakes for foreign markets, Chalpin had begun to produce original material at his New York recording facility Studio 76 that he would license to various record labels. Chalpin auditioned Curtis Knight in 1965 and agreed to manage and produce him.

In October 1965, Knight introduced Jimmy Hendrix to Chalpin. After their initial recording session yielded Knight’s “How Would You Feel,” Chalpin signed Jimi Hendrix to a notorious three-year recording contract for $1.00 and a 1% royalty. Hendrix had thought he was signing a release as a backing musician, later noting, “I took it as an insure of getting paid for the session…” In 1966, Chalpin licensed two singles from Hendrix’s sessions with Curtis Knight to RSVP Records, a New York based independent label owned by Jerry Simon. “How Would You Feel” b/w “Welcome Home” and “Hornet’s Nest” b/w “Knock Yourself Out.” The latter two instrumentals were composed by Hendrix and stand as the first ever commercial release of his own music. Both of these efforts missed the charts entirely and, as a result, Simon’s interest in the group waned and RSVP did not issue a third single.

Hendrix would continue to intermittently perform as a member of Curtis Knight & The Squires in 1966. He had also formed his own group Jimmy James & The Blue Flames in Greenwich Village. It was there where Animals bassist Chas Chandler spotted Hendrix performing “Hey Joe” at the Café Wha?. He offered to take Hendrix to London to record a version of the song and serve as his producer.

In September 1966, Chandler escorted Hendrix from New York to London to make good on his promise. Under his guidance, Hendrix formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding. Chandler rushed them into the recording studio, pawning his bass guitar to help fund the group. Chandler’s faith was rewarded in December 1966 when “Hey Joe” became a hit in England and soon throughout Europe. “Purple Haze” and “The Wind Cries Mary” followed in quick succession and were even more successful. In a matter of months, Hendrix had transformed from a struggling, little known sideman to the brightest new star in popular music.

Ed Chalpin had learned of Hendrix’s international success via reports in industry trade journals. Beginning in May 1967, Chalpin had begun notifying every company he could identify as doing business with Hendrix that his company PPX had previously signed the guitarist to an exclusive three year contract covering the term between October 1965 and October 1968.

Beginning with December 1967’s Get That Feeling, Chalpin began to compile and license albums featuring the master recordings Hendrix had recorded as a sideman to Knight. Get That Feeling was followed by October 1968’s Flashing. Hendrix’s burgeoning fan base was confused by the lack of liner notes or accurate cover imagery [Get That Feeling featured a photograph of Hendrix performing at the Monterey Pop Festival] as these albums gave full artist billing to Jimi Hendrix.

Jimi Hendrix was hamstrung throughout his career by litigation over these recordings in the US and UK and these fights continued until his family ultimately prevailed in litigation against Ed Chalpin and PPX in 2003. Experience Hendrix has since acquired all of the recordings controlled by Chalpin and PPX and this compilation stands as their first attempt to present this music in its original context.

You Can’t Use My Name kicks off with “How Would You Feel,” a 1966 single based in part on Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.” “How Would You Feel” tackles sensitive race issues, pre-dating by a few years the explosion of popular R&B acts latching onto the thriving Black Power movement. Its b-side “Welcome Home” is also featured on the collection. These tracks represent a musical touchstone, as Hendrix (listed as “Jimmy Hendrix”) received his first ever label credit as an arranger of both songs. Also included is the instrumental “Hornet’s Nest” and its b-side “Knock Yourself Out [Flying On Instruments],” both of which were composed by Hendrix.

Capping off You Can’t Use My Name is the August 1967 track that spawned its namesake. Heard for the first time is the fascinating section of studio chatter that precedes a take of “Gloomy Monday,” wherein Hendrix repeatedly requests that Chalpin not use his name in the marketing of the recording, and Chalpin agrees, albeit, ambiguously. Already months deep into litigation, it can only be theorized that Hendrix continued to participate in sessions with Chalpin as a gesture of goodwill in the hope that all would be forgiven. It didn’t pan out that way, and the dialog is an interesting footnote to the complicated history between the two parties.

“We are extremely delighted to now be in a position to offer these rare, historic recordings,” commented Experience Hendrix President and CEO Janie Hendrix, sister of Jimi Hendrix. “What makes them so special is that they provide an honest look at a great artist during the pivotal time when he was on the cusp of his breakthrough.. a time when Jimi’s number one priority was playing and recording, and this set captures him doing just that, both as a collaborator and an innovator. They are more than just recordings, they represent a significant segment in the timeline of Jimi's musical existence.”

Original Jimi Hendrix Experience recording engineer Eddie Kramer recently went to pain-staking lengths to maximize the audio quality on the collection. “We’ve taken every single performance as far back as we could go in terms of source and we came up with the best original performances, stripped them back and re-mixed them and made what we feel is the best representation of those recordings,” says Kramer. “It’s a continuing archeological sound dig which is to say you sweep away the dirt with a fine brush and find the gem hidden therein. It’s what I call ‘forensic audio’ where we use every available piece of outboard gear and plug-ins and whatever tools are available to us. It’s been hours and hours of intensive work but it’s truly been fun to find the best performances and to make sense out of them."

These recordings made for PPX and RSVP are part of Jimi Hendrix’s extraordinary legacy. They neatly align with those other sessions Hendrix participated in during this same era as a sideman for other acts. Absent the confusion as to Hendrix’s true involvement, these recordings provide a snapshot of his development immediately prior to his discovery by Chas Chandler. “I was a backing musician playing guitar,” Hendrix explained in a 1967 interview. “I was always kept in the background, but I was thinking all the time about what I wanted to do.” Enjoyed in this context, these Curtis Knight sessions showcase his evolving technique and emerging brilliance.

You Can’t Use My Name: Curtis Knight & The Squires (featuring Jimi Hendrix) The RSVP/PPX Sessions tracklist:

1) How Would You Feel
2) Gotta Have A New Dress
3) Don’t Accuse Me
4) Fool For You Baby
5) No Such Animal
6) Welcome Home
7) Knock Yourself Out [Flying On Instruments]
8) Simon Says
9) Station Break
10) Strange Things
11) Hornet’s Nest
12) You Don’t Want Me
13) You Can’t Use My Name
14) Gloomy Monday

The 1967 Curtis Knight reunion sessions

March 2015: Experience Hendrix release "You Can't Use My Name", featuring mainly the early recordings by Curtis Knight And The Squires
See the Before Fame section for full details.

This subject merits attention and I spend time on it to sort out all the terrible confusion that it has created over the decades. It must be said right away that the music here is sub-standard and bears no relation to the main body of Jimi's work.

As detailed in the Before Fame section, during his pre-Experience days in and around New York, Hendrix recorded a number of songs with Curtis Knight & The Squires. Jimi moolightd from Knght's band around the summer of 1966 to form his own group, Jimmy James & The Blue Flames (a.k.a. The Rainflowers) but would occasionally still play club gigs with Knight (he was in fact discovered by Linda Keith at the Cheetah Club while playing with Knight's band). Then Linda eventually got Chas Chandler interested. Chas took Jimi to London and made him an international senasation.

A year later, in the summer of 1967 and just after Monterey, when America was discovering The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jimi got back in touch with his old friend Curtis Knight and with a few other musicians they ended up jamming and Jimi also helped touch up some older recordings that they had done together).
Incredibly, at that time, Jimi was in fact still under contract with PPX Enterprises as a member of Knight's backing band The Squires (Chas Chandler was unaware of this when he had signed him up with Yameta and Track Records). Even more incredible was the fact that Ed Chalpin had already filed a lawsuit against Yameta (the publishing company who thought that they owned exclusive rights to Jimi's music). Out of guilt we presume, Jimi felt that he owed his old workmates something and perhaps felt, rather naïvely, that the sessions might calm the legal conflict. Bootleg releases have revealed that at the beginning of one session, Jimi calls out to Chalpin "Don't use my name on this, OK ?". You can hear Chalpin simply reply "Don't worry about it". Jimi would soon have plenty to worry about and Chaplin came back to haunt him for the following three years.

Jimi, Curtis Knight and an unknown bassist, perhaps at the first Studio 76 session of July 1967. Jimi is playing an 8 string Hagstrom bass.
In the control booth are Dick ("turned down The Beatles") Rowe of Decca Records and Ed Chalpin of PPX Enterprises.

Jimi in fact attended two sessions at Studio 76 in New York. At the first he only played fuzz bass on a couple of jams that became "Day Tripper/Future Trip/Flashing","Odd Ball", and "Get That Feeling". There is another bassist on the recordings and Jimi plays his 8 strings Hagstrom bass through a fuzz tone right up front and sometimes in a lead bass style.
Jimi also helped re-record one of his own songs titled "I' Ain't Takin' Care Of No Business" (called "No Business" here). Again he only played some fuzz bass. Interestingly, a few months later, Jimi recorded his very own version of the song with The Experience as "Taking Care Of No Business" which finally appeared on the 2000 MCA box set.

Another photo from the same session showing Jimi this time with a Corvette guitar which is very similar to the Hagstrom bass.

At the second session, Jimi brought along his new wah-wah pedal. It has been said that he had discovered Frank Zappa using the gadget first and soon adopted it himself. However Noel said in his book that it was he who had discovered a Vox Cry Baby in the London Vox shop and promptly encouraged Jimi to check it out. "Burning Of The Midnight Lamp" had been his first use of it and ultimately, the wah-wah pedal was destined to be forever associated with Hendrix.
At the 1967 sessions with Knight, apart from the touch-ups of old recordings 65/66 recordings, Jimi mostly jammed with the musicians present. Ed Chalpin then edited the taped sections to construct "songs", exploiting the little he had to the full. Then Curtis Knight added some vocals over the top. They apparently squeezed six songs out of two off-the-cuff jams! So one jam (sounding a bit like the basic drive of "Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice") was used to create "Hush Now" /"Love Love"/"Happy Birthday" and the other jam to make the tracks "Day Tripper "/ "Future Trip" / "Flashing".
There is some relatively interesting wah wah playing from Jimi in there at times. Curiously, his opening guitar on what became "Love Love" slightly resembles the intro guitar of "1983".
The old recordings that Jimi helped touch up were "Gloomy Monday" and "My Best Friend" (also called "Ballad Of Jimmy" which became "Ballad Of Jimi").
"Gloomy Monday" was included on the the 2015 Legacy release "You Can't Use My Name" alongside the 1965-66 recordings.

Even though Jimi had asked Chalpin not to use his name, PPX didn't waste time, putting Jimi's name in huge letters on the cover of the album "Get That Feeling" (released at the end of the year) with a superb photo of him performing at Monterey. Jimi's management team tried to stop the album but lost and were ordered hand over rights to a new Hendrix album (which eventually turned out to be "Band Of Gypsys" in 1970 ) as a payment for his breaching of contract. Chalpin however was expecting a Jimi Hendrix Experience album and he was soon filing another lawsuit. All of this greatly troubled Jimi.

According to www.earlyhendrix.com Jimi is credited as songwriter for Future Trip / Flashing, Get That Feeling, Happy Birthday, Hush Now, Love Love

SUMMARY OF THE 1967 SESSIONS:

SESSION 1 (17 July 1967)
Jimi plays on a 6 string bass on what became:
Get That Feeling
No Business
Odd Ball (instr.)
Day Tripper/Future Trip/Flashing

SESSION 2 (8 August 1967)
Jimi plays guitar on what became:
Gloomy Monday
Love (instr.)
Hush Now (instr.)
Ballad of Jimi (vocals added later)
+
Hush Now (vocal overdub)
Love Love (the same as "Love "with a vocal overdub)
Happy Birthday - part of the "Love" jam with a different vocal overdub
Level (instr.) - a short edit of the "Hush Now" jam

Since the sixties, the PPX material has been over exploited on dozens of albums which churned out the same material again and again for the unwitting consumer, with titles like "The Great Jimi Hendrix In New York", "The Eternal Fire Of Jimi Hendrix", "Early Jimi Hendrix", "Birth Of Success" ... Here are just a few of relative interest

"The Authentic PPX Recordings" A series of lowsy albums with superb sleeve art which spread out all the PPX material from 1965 to 1967 across six volumes, a box set and a "Best Of". Talk about flogging a dead horse ! All the sources of Curtis Knight recordings are stupidly mixed up to create even more confusion (a speciality of Ed Chalpin).

[url=http://hendrix.guide.pagesperso-orange.fr/hendrix2.htm]http://hendrix.guide.pagesperso-orange.fr/hendrix2.htm[/url]