Jimi Hendrix - Live In Maui 1970 - New official release (20th November 2020)

I absolutely love the documentary in this new release. I found it fascinating as I always wondered what the story was behind that goofy film. They really did an excellent job detailing how Jimi got sucked into the project and the nutty characters behind the production. The documentary also relieved my frustrations wondering why Mitch's drums were so out of sink with the film where Jimi's fingers were right on the money when it 'splained that Mitch had to overdub the drums as the original drum recording was messed up. It's funny to hear the talking head say what a great job he did sync'ing his parts with the film when in fact so much of what recorded in "post" is so different than what he played live. As one who has great appreciation for the posthumous Hendrix releases starting with Cry of Love and Rainbow Bridge, I found the documentary very engaging as it revealed much of the story behind those records and the film with which I was unfamiliar. They obviously spent some money on the doc. I find that strange given that hard-copy digital formats of artists appealing to boomers like me are way down on the music market money take. Apparently there is enough of a market to make it worthwhile and for that, I'm very grateful.

The Maui concert has always been a fav ever since I was exposed to it on the great "Last American Concert" LP bootleg. The BluRay footage is excellent but frustrating where it too often has to put up a slide indicating "all cameras turned off" or some such. The 5.1 sound is quite good, though as with every 5.1 concert mix of which I am familiar, it's no revelation in terms of discrete instrument separation - they just attempt to put the listener amongst the audience. that said, this set really makes the previous boots and grey market versions of Hendrix's Maui concert obsolete.

 

That whole post reads like you were drunk when you wrote it.

 

Ha! No. Well before I knew much about Hendrix and the Rainbow Bridge film - I'm talking, maybe 7 or 8 years old - one of aunts told me about the "Rainbow Bridge." You cross the bridge when you die to visit all of your pets who have passed on, as well.

When I found the Hendrix album, the concept of a Rainbow Bridge came back to me, but obviously the film is not about dead pets. Indeed, I'm still not sure what the film is about.

 

Just got home from running a few errands. Stopped by a local brick and mortar to browse...$49.99 for the 3LP set. Uhh, sold. Too tired tonight but will be listening tomorrow.

 

Well clearly Chuck Weinged it!

 

Just finished watching the Blu-Ray...twice . All I can say is WOW!!! Have to start out by saying, I’m not familiar with this material at all, outside of the “Voodoo Child” video posted a month or so ago. I think the performance is excellent and the band is in fine form. Standouts for me...Set 1, “Train” and Voodoo Child”, Set 2, “Dolly Dagger” through Red House”, I mean come on! As someone said earlier, worth the price of admission alone!

As for the quality, Audio: Considering the windy conditions, it’s a miracle it sounds as good as it does, very impressed. Video: Most of set 1, very good but looks standard definition to me. I would have been satisfied if the whole thing looked like that, especially with the great audio synced with it. Starting at the tail end of “Train” and into “Voodoo Child” there’s a noticeable shift in video quality, the colors pop and we get into HD quality. Am I wrong in saying that the video quality gets even better in set 2? Looks that way to me but maybe the weather changed a bit, more sunny, I don’t know, the level of detail just looks better to me, anyway, visual quality and of course the audio in Set 2 is fabulous!

Regarding the “Cameras All Stopped” still screen, not sure why they didn’t just stick with the moving stills like they did in other parts of the sets, much better IMO, however, it’s definitely not a deal breaker in any way, shape or form, I consider it a very minor inconvenience. My main concern would’ve been if they didn’t keep the audio running which they did so not a big deal to me at all.

Just an observation and opinion, the camera men coming up on that small stage during “Voodoo Child”, while they produced some cool angles, I couldn’t help but think that if that was Pete Townshend up there he would’ve literally kicked them ala Woodstock, there’s no way he would’ve stood for them invading his space LOL.

I haven’t watched the documentary yet so can’t comment on that, I’m mainly bought this for the performance footage. All in all, this is a phenomenal release, the amount and quality of the performance footage exceeded my wildest expectations considering we were unsure up until basically yesterday exactly what we were going to get....BUY THIS!!!

 

Yes give the patch(es) as a separate listening option if they fear there is too many of them and they feel as a result it is possibly a too disjointed listen.

 

my observations:

Saw all the concert footage on the blu-ray. Great footage, for the most part, but really frustrating when they know they're filming who is arguably the greatest guitarist to ever pick up the instrument, yet they turned off the cameras for the majority of the solos he did. WTF?!

Maybe my TV setup isn't as good as others (I do have separate speakers for it), but this concert sounds way better on the CD tracks I sampled so far than on the blu-ray

Watched about 5 minutes of the documentary here and there to get a feel for it. Seems really interesting! Look forward to watching the whole thing.

 

Watching the Blu Ray now, and it just dawned on me that Jimi might have been so animated on stage, during the Maui shows, because he really didn't get to see the audience any more, the brighter the stage lights got.

He could reach and touch them in the middle of a volcano crater in the summer of 1970.

 

I watched the first set on Blu-ray. Between the "ALL CAMERAS STOPPED" parts and the camera panning to the stoned hippies for large sections, it's a bit disappointing. But when the cameras are on Jimi and the band, then it's priceless.

 

Watching the blu ray, and there's this guy with a bowtie taking about Jimi Hendrix's music.

...and this weird Andy Warhol perverted soft core porn. All set against a backdrop of "1983...a Merman, etc."

 

I'll have what he's having!

 

We've got a bit of what sounds like unreleased studio music at 35:46 in the film. Or, least I've never heard it. I'm pretty familiar with the boots of his studio stuff, but perhaps I'm wrong.

 

I now realise that the two dancing girls on the right of the stage with the colorful dresses and who seem to be twins, are actually the Gemini Twins, who you can see singing right before Chuck Wein's intro in the film Rainbow Bridge. This is completely new information to me.

 

Pat Hartley should have been in the doc. Don't think Jimi would have been too happy with that mess of a film called Rainbow Bridge. Glad we have some video of him playing in beautiful Maui though.

 

I don't think the people that made it know what it's about

 

I'm trying to read into these new posts on the film, and I think you all are saying that there is far more Jimi concert footage in the new doc than the old RB movie?

How much more concert footage (since it is all that was any good to begin with) is in the new movie?

 

Duh you mean Pat was not interviewed?

 

Anybody have a clue on the jazzy stuff that plays over the BR menu screen?

This is my first time with this material and I don't think I'm yet in a position to rank it, and sometimes my feelings change. For example, when I first got Miami I thought it was a bit, 'OK', but now I really rate it as a focused set.

I will say that I think Billy Cox is showcased really well. A hell of a bass player.

 

That indicates that the intention wasn't to make a "concert movie" and the camera crew were simply following the Jeffrey directive, like for Berkeley, "Get some footage".

 

Some new Hear My Train a Comin', complete Voodoo Child (Slight Return), some Fire, a complete Dolly Dagger, complete Villanova Junction, some Ezy Ryder, complete Red House, some Freedom and some Stone Free.

There is a bootleg video tape with a lot of the new material not in the Rainbow Bridge film, but it didn't contain Red House, Freedom and Stone Free. But it does contain some material not on the bluray, such as parts of the underground "Strange Day on Maui" film and some bits and pieces of the new material not shown (such as a part in between Hear My Train and Voodoo Child).

 

Didn't she decline the offer to be interviewed for this?

 

So basically this is a dream come true for fans of the sometimes called 2nd best footage of Jimi captured live in performance. To get more of this colorful film of a relaxed but still intense Hendrix. Berkeley might be tops imo unti we get RAH anyway.

 

As Purple Jim said, the intention was to shoot a documentary, not a Hendrix concert movie, same thing as with the Berkeley footage.
Also quite possibly, probably the case, is that the crew only hauled a limited amount of film stock up the hills.

 

I agree with you. In fact I'd have preferred getting both shows with the original drum track intact (as these portions of the new release sound so much more natural and balanced) and, additionally the tracks with overdubs presented as a separate bonus section.

I'm really impressed by their salvaging work on the drum tracks. Considering the mix of overdubbed and untouched portions not so much. The overdubbed portions sound oddly unbalanced and you can hear the different ambience of the drums. You can hear all the separate tracks/indtruments clearly, but they don't seem to cohere. Especially with the vocals still sounding muffled and drowned out by the instruments.

It doesn't help that Mitch Mitchell's part's sound unfocussed and sloppy on many tracks. I'm impressed by his playing on Voodoo Child (one of the highlights of this release) but his work on - say - Dolly Dagger is certainly not very strong. On several occasions he seems to be woefully behind the beat. DD has always been one of my favourite Rainbow Bridge performances so this is a big spoiler for me.