Fifty years ago Jimi Hendrix returned to his native country and, in one fell swoop changed the musical landscape for all time. It was the galvanizing, U.S. debut performance of THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE at The Monterey International Pop Festival that propelled Hendrix and his bandmates, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, to the top ranks of international rock royalty.
THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE at Monterey is a remarkable visual and aural document that reconfirms what the Monterey audience bore witness to on June 18, 1967: Hendrix's unbridled talent and flair for showmanship are unparalleled in the annals of music.
The set of songs that THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE performed at Monterey was introduced by Brian Jones, THE ROLLING STONES' guitarist whose presence at the festival amounted to a kind of benediction by an acknowledged rock god. He knew full well who he was introducing as Hendrix had moved to London fewer than nine months earlier and achieved icon status in the U.K. in very short order. His conquest of his native land, though, would be achieved almost instantaneously at Monterey.
“The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live At Monterey” offers all existing film footage of that epochal performance presented in its original sequence. The original 16mm camera reversal footage shot by D.A. Pennebaker's Monterey Pop film crew has been transferred to high-definition specs and is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The DVD soundtrack features new 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo mixes by Eddie Kramer, the engineer so closely associated with the Jimi Hendrix and his legacy, from the original eight-track live recordings made at the concert by remote engineer Wally Heider.