PRE-ORDER FROM DAGGER RECORDS
Are you experienced? Back in 1965, the answer was: "not yet!" But Jimi Hendrix was charting a path to his eventual success that included working as a sideman with Curtis Knight and The Squires. A dozen of these performances will be released on brown vinyl for Record Store Day Black Friday on November 27, but you don't have to wait that long to hear the complete 19-song set.
No Business: The PPX Sessions Volume 2 will first be released on CD and digital providers through Dagger Records on October 23. The follow-up to the 2015 collection You Can't Use My Name, this set will feature demos from October 1965, as well as 1967 studio sessions tracked as Hendrix rose to fame. They demonstrate the future legend's budding talents as a guitarist and songwriter. Just take a listen to "Working All Day" and "Taking Care of No Business," his first-known recorded compositions.
The 1965 sessions were contracted by Ed Chalpin, who had Hendrix sign what the artist thought was a release for the session. Instead, it was a contract to Chalpin's PPX Enterprises, which presented a conflict considering Hendrix had already signed to Sue Records. As Hendrix rose to stardom with the Experience, Chalpin began releasing the 1965-1966 Curtis Knight material as "new" Hendrix recordings, which prompted him to record with Knight once more in the summer of '67 to get out of the deal. While that plan didn't work out, it now leaves us with some historically significant and highly creative Hendrix music.
The July 1967 songs see Hendrix employing his signature wah-wah effect on "Hush Now" and "Love, Love," as well as 8-string bass on songs like "My Best Friend" and a re-cut "Taking Care Of No Business." In August, Hendrix returned to add rhythm guitar to "Gloomy Monday," to which lead guitar and sitar overdubs were added. Chalpin then raided the archive for anything else he could release, resulting in an alternate version of the 1966 song "How Would You Feel" featuring the same master but with new lyrics and vocals by Knight.
Now owned by Experience Hendrix, these recordings have finally been presented tastefully - free of posthumous overdubs and fully restored by Eddie Kramer. It's the purest release of this intriguing result of Hendrix's growing fame and his contractual obligation recordings. Yet, there are also plenty of glimmers of Hendrix's genius on this set. It's not just some historic curio, but an essential part of the story of Hendrix's creative ascent.
So mark your calendars for October 23, as this chapter of Jimi Hendrix's early career arrives on CD and digital. And don't forget to visit your local record shop on November 27th to get your copy of the brown vinyl edition as part of the Record Store Day Black Friday event.
Curtis Knight & The Squires [featuring Jimi Hendrix], No Business: The PPX Sessions, Volume 2 (Legacy/Experience Hendrix/Dagger Records) (Dagger Records)
CD Track Listing:
Studio Sessions:
- UFO
- No Business
- Hush Now
- Gloomy Monday [Alternate]
- How Would You Feel [Alternate]
- Love Love
- My Best Friend [Takes 3/4/5]
- Hornet's Nest [Alternate]
- I Need You Every Day [Sick & Tired]
- Suey
Demo Recordings:
- Taking Care Of No Business
- Working All Day
- Two Little Birds
- Suddenly
- UFO
- Better Times Ahead
- Everybody Knew But Me
- If You Gonna Make A Fool Of Somebody
- My Best Friend
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Release Round-Up: Week of November 18
very interested in this one .. didn't know about the earlier vol so have ordered that now .. thanks for the article .. much appreciated.
I will pass on this one. Ed Chalpin flooded the market with these recordings of Jimi with Curtis Knight that a roommate bought four different albums of "early Hendrix" in the late Eighties and they were basically the same. I know that estate of Hendrix made deal with PPX but Ed Chalpin caused so much turmoil for Jimi that these recordings are taboo for me. If you want to hear Jimi pre Experience, try his work with The Isley Brothers; far superior.
Amen to that. The Ed Chaplin releases I heard in 1970 were terrible and nothing but attempts to capitalize on Hendrix's name.
Love that cover photo.
Not too mention the Band of Gypsies LP that was meant to get rid of the Chalpin/PPX parasite.
These substandard recordings have been available forever. I'll also pass on
Them as well. What the Hendrix family needs to concentrate on is the complete Axis Bold as Love sessions as there is void there.
AVOID AT ALL COST.
Money-grubbing people just can't stop milking Jimi's corpse for every little thing they can dig up. I wouldn't buy this.
Let him rest in peace....
I agree by and large with all the previous comments but even back in the early 1980s when I got 'into' Jimi and bought up all his 'official albums' on vinyl and played them all to death for nearly three years continuously I still had a soft spot for the Ed Chalpin PPX recordings along with the Lonnie Youngblood recordings which featured tracks such as Wipe The Sweat Pts 1, 2 & 3 and Under The Table pts 1 & 2 plus another vinyl album I really liked was called Free Spirit which never appeared on cd. After buying the Ed Chalpin PPX vinyl albums such as The Ballad Of Jimi, Flashing & Hornets Nest along with many other pre-Experience 'Hendrix albums' during the 1980s (quite often for the album cover alone that usually featured a good picture of Jimi on stage) I eventually sold them all which is something I still regret doing to this day.