THE POWER OF GYPSYS

On December 31, 1969, Jimi Hendrix walked out onto the stage of the Fillmore East in New York City, delivering the first of two sets he’d give at the venue that night. He was making his debut with a new group he’d dubbed the Band of Gypsys, featuring an old army buddy, Billy Cox, on bass, and Buddy Miles, whom Jimi had met when he was touring America as a backup musician in the years before he found fame, on drums.

The band hadn’t even released a record yet, so the audience had no idea what to expect. And as the show kicked off with “Power of Soul,” then went into “Lover Man,” followed by “Hear My Train A Comin’,” Billy watched as the audience’s faces turned to amazement. “You could see people with their mouths wide open,” he recalls. “We had combined R&B, rock, and a little jazz, and people were thinking, ‘We’ve never heard music like this before!’”As the band walked offstage after the first show, Jimi told Billy, “It’s going to be all right now!” “You couldn’t wipe the smile off his face, because he knew he had done a good job,” says Billy. “It was a great time.”

Band of Gypsys, drawn from the third and fourth shows, was released three months later in the U.S., peaking at No. 5. It was the last album of new material Jimi released during his lifetime. Over the years, more songs from the shows have trickled out. Now comes Songs for Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts, which presents all four shows in their entirety for the first time. “Patience is a virtue,” jokes Eddie Kramer, who co-produced the new set, and whose involvement with Jimi goes back to February 3, 1967, when the two met at a session at London’s Olympic Studios, where Eddie was then working as an engineer. He went on to work on the original Band of Gypsys album.

1969 was a tumultuous year for Hendrix; indeed, Band of Gypsys was just one of a revolving cast of musicians he played shows with during those 12 months. The first half of the year was devoted to shows with the Jimi