Album cover for Valleys of Neptune, 2010*

According to a recent interview with Seattle radio station KISW 99.9 FM, the late Jimi Hendrix’s sister Janie revealed that her brother was aiming for new sound that could best be compared to the band Earth Wind and Fire.

Although the soulful multi-genre band had barely formed a year before the legendary guitarist’s death, she believes that they best match the sound her brother described.

“What he was trying to do was create this new sound,” said Hendrix. “He told my dad: ‘You’re going to be doubly proud of me.’ He was bringing all these instruments like he did at Woodstock. The way he was describing it in 1969 was what Earth Wind & Fire became. That’s what we would have had: richer, bigger bands with more sounds and more cultures. There would have been a definite evolution.”

Although the sixties definitely don’t feel like they were just yesterday, it’s hard to imagine that this year Hendrix would have turned the ripe old age of 70 and according to his sister would have been jamming all the way through his golden years.

“He’d still be playing music,” she said. “He’d be doing what he was doing then: encouraging kids to play, buying them guitars. He’d be producing, encouraging – Electric Lady is still a viable studio. Artists are still working in that studio, for the vibe and also because it’s a beautiful studio. When Jimi was alive there were two studios. Now they have five.”

Although we will never be able to hear Jimi’s new sound, we will still be able to hear some new stuff from Jimi as his estate – managed by his sister – is set to soon release a new posthumous Hendrix album, People, Hell and Angels.

Some of you out there might remember two years ago when the Hendrix estate signed a ten year deal with Sony which has so far resulted in the 2010 posthumous Jimi album Valleys of Neptune.

Well, all of those patient fans out there can now look forward to two soon to be released live concert movies which will include the obligatory brand new, never before seen (publicly, at least) footage from Hendrix’s performance at the Miami Pop Festival – but that comes after the new album.  

And as far as the title of that album is concerned, Janie reveals: “It was Jimi’s title that he wrote down during the time he was creating the songs. There’ll be twelve songs on the album that haven’t been released – or at least those versions have never been released.”

People, Hell and Angels was recorded at about the same time as  Valleys of Neptune and is set to be released before the end of this year.

 

 

 

*Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons