The world of alternative and indie rock would not be the same today if Jimi Hendrix had never been discovered at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1968, which was the first time he really broke out in the U.S. Sadly, after changing rock and roll radically and forever in a whirlwind of fame over the course of just a few years, Hendrix died suddenly in 1970 at the age of 27.
Well, Hendrix and guitar rock fans everywhere have something to celebrate this week thanks to a special feature from NPR’s World Cafe series, ‘The Jimi Hendrix You Never Knew.‘ David Dye, the host of World Cafe, presents a two-hour audio stream showcasing new Hendrix music that only surfaced in recent years. The songs were tracks that Hendrix was working on following his epic 1968 rock and roll classic, Electric Ladyland.
While the master tapes of these long-lost recording sessions were eventually recovered by Hendrix’s family members, the public only heard them for the first time upon the release the post-humous album, People, Hell and Angels (get CD version, #8 on Amazon, MP3 version, the vinyl or the limited deluxe edition), an LP consisting of 12 previously unreleased recordings released earlier this month.
In this special, Dye includes many of the original recordings, as well as interviews with Hendrix’s sister Janie, his original engineer, Eddie Kramer, and bass player, Billy Cox, in addition to musicians like Taj Mahal, Billy Gibbons, Angela Davis, Steve Winwood and Bootsy Collins.