From the amazing website http://hendrix.guide.pagesperso-orange.fr/live2010.htm
1968 was the year when the original Jimi Hendrix Experience were at their peak. The following year came disillusionment as Jimi felt that the band were repeating themselves. Despite a series of great 1969 concerts, the band broke up in June of that year.
So at the Miami Pop Festival, we find them full of passion and riding on a crest of a wave, shortly before their brief tour of Italy. This recording and "Winterland" are in fact the only official mainstream releases of performances from this period (some 1968 good quality soundboard recordings have appeared on the mail-order only Dagger Records). Like at the Winterland, Miami is a professional multi-track recording made by Eddie Kramer (at the demand of Jimi).
We already had some excellent songs from this gig on the official "Calling Long Distance" (Univibes 1992) and on various bootlegs ("1968 A.D." for example) and they gave us an indication that the recordings caught the band on a good day. They in fact played an afternoon and an evening show (unusual at pop festivals) and this album mixes the two performances together to create a neat flow, with the repeated songs tagged on as "bonuses".
It opens just like a bootleg, with the MC announcement and general tune-ups before they go into a superb "Hey Joe" complete with a grand two minute fanfare introduction. Then we hear a great series of crowd pleasing hits, all brilliantly executed and we are also treated to some cool jamming on "Hear My Train A Comin" (only the second live performance of the song), "Red House" and "Tax Free" for good measure. Great playing from Jimi and the guys, especially Mitch (who recounted in his autobiography that he and Jimi were as high as kites on acid at the festival).
So after the very long wait, this is was very rewarding release with great sound and an essential addition to the collection for any Hendrix fan.
Here are the actual set-lists from the two shows (which shows that only a version of "Purple Haze" is missing).
Afternoon show: Tax Free, Foxy Lady, Fire, Hear My Train A Comin', Purple Haze
Evening show: Hey Joe, Fire, I Don't Live Today, Foxy Lady, Red House, Purple Haze
We had hoped that his release would have been backed up by a stand-alone DVD release but alas only fragments of the performances seem to have survived (no CBS news team footage has been found) and the sequences are included as bonuses (along with other rare film from Randall Island and Fehmarn in 1970!) with a new documentary DVD titled "Hear My Train A Comin" which was released the same month (a shortened version for TV was shown in many countries).
Label: Experience Hendrix – 88883769931, Legacy – 88883769931
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, 200 gram
Country: US
Released: 05 Nov 2013
Genre: Rock
Style: Blues Rock, Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Tracklist
A1 Introduction 1:54
A2 Hey Joe 6:22
A3 Foxey Lady 4:32
A4 Tax Free 8:44
B1 Fire 2:47
B2 Hear My Train A Comin' 7:59
B3 I Don't Live Today 4:50
C1 Red House 12:07
C2 Purple Haze 4:19
Bonus Performances:
D1 Fire [Afternoon Show] 3:07
D2 Foxey Lady [Afternoon Show] 4:56