New Hendrix anthology packed with unreleased songs

(AFP PHOTO/HENRY DILTZ/MORRISON HOTEL GALLERY/NEWSCOM/HO)

A four-CD box set of 45 unreleased songs, demos, and rare live recordings by Jimi Hendrix will be released on November 16. The anthology, West Coast Seattle Boy: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology, also includes a new documentary by Grammy Award winner Bob Smeaton.

The compilation charts Hendrix's career from his early days as an R&B sideman to the weeks before his death, when he made private recordings in his New York City apartment. The first disc traces his years as an R&B guitarist and features rare tracks with the Isley Brothers, Don Covay and the Goodtimers, and Little Richard. The second and third discs showcase Hendrix classics, such as "Purple Haze" and "Fire," and dozens of unreleased tracks, including a cover of Bob Dylan's "Tears of Rage" and solo acoustic recordings of "Long Hot Summer Night" and "1983 (A Merman I Shall Turn To Be)." The fourth disc contains the Hendrix's Band of Gypsys concert on New Year's Eve in 1969 at New York's Fillmore East.

The box set also features a new 90-minute documentary, Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Child, directed by Grammy Award-winning Bob Smeaton ( The Beatles Anthology, Band of Gypsys). The film culls interviews with Hendrix along with his letters, writings, and recordings to provide insight into his life and career. Featured are some of Hendrix's greatest live performances as well as personal drawings, postcards home to his father, song drafts, and sketches.

West Coast Seattle Boy: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology follows two rounds of Hendrix album releases this year by Legacy Recordings and Experience Hendrix to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his death.

http://www.jimihendrix.com