A MCRFB news brief: 1967
Hendrix Wows Crowd In Ann Arbor
DETROIT — Playing at the Fifth Dimension in Ann Arbor recently, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, a Reprise Records group, proved themselves to be a tremendously exciting act both in the recording studio and, possibly more so while on stage.
Onstage, Hendrix with hair a la Dylan puts on a show with his brilliant guitar work and electric stage presence. While performing, his swings his guitar in back of him and plays it resting on his back. He also zings the strings with his teeth and falls to the floor seemingly playing each chord seductively while on his knees and on his back.
In Ann Arbor, when his amplifier blew, he flung the amp to the floor at the end of his last set and jumped up and down on top of it. Paradoxically, he never blows his cool. While he’s frantic, he’s casual. As he’s hurling the instrument around, a gleam of humor comes through. He’s hip without being a hippie — that is, he’s without the pretentiousness and pomposity which afflicts too many hippies. Amazingly they did “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” with just three pieces in a way that would have made the Beatles glad.
While all this wild movement is taking place, the music Hendrix produces, along with guitarist band members Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Michell become beautifully entrancing in its invention and execution. Most of the numbers performed were Hendrix originals like “Hey Joe,“ “The Wind Cries Mary” and “Foxey Lady.”
Hendrix voice has that tough soulful quality that reflects his roots in the blues. The group is tight and musically disciplined while their music is freed from traditional constraints.
Hendrix is scheduled to return to play the Grande Ballroom in Detroit sometime in February 1968. END.
(Information and news source: Billboard; September 16, 1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRcQs7Qbgic
