Jimi Hendrix Bootlegs - Search and Destroy

The record on offer is THIS FLYER (classed now as B89 although it has no matrix or catalogue number) one of, if not the first ever Hendrix bootlegs to appear, recorded in 1969 at the shokan house at woodstock, it is steeped in Hendrix History.

In 1970 one of the first Hendrix bootlegs to appear was called This Flyer (B89).
In keeping with many other bootlegs of that period it sported a plain jacket and plain black centre labels on the disc itself. The title came from the enclosed slip of paper which stated ''This flyer is for that man who walked into a pad at Woodstock raised his axe and talked to the people around him, and they talked together.'' The album contains four jams, a long affair which dominates side one and three shorter pieces on side two.

The jams featured unknown Welsh pianist Mike Ephron with Juma Sultan on flute and percussion and Jerry Velez also on percussion.

A contemporary report claimed that the tapes were originally offered for sale to raise money for Juma who had been arrested and jailed in Pakistan for 'weed wickery'.
The same report states that the funds to free Juma were eventually found elsewhere and the tapes ended up in the hands of Bill Doukas who had the album mastered by a blind engineer in a New York basement studio.

4,000 copies of This Flyer were reputedly pressed in Jamaica (3,000 for the U.S.A. and 1,000 for Britain) but this album is SO RARE that the number was probably much less.
Profits were to go to mainly East Coast groups, in particular the Black Panthers.
In fact a number of copies (not this one) were circulated with photocopies of Black Panther propaganda inside the sleeve. Doukas believed this would meet with Jimi's approval but just to be
on the safe side he claimed he was only going to tell him after the album's release.
This was a wise move as Jimi would have been horrified at this material getting a public airing.

Also, there is a CD called "Axis Outtakes" a.k.a. the Sotheby Auction reels that is most excellent.

Re. This Flyer: The Ephron/Sultan jams with Jimi were released in more complete form on the "Jimi Hendrix at His Best" discs. I think there was maybe four of them. The dates on the liner notes mention 1963 or '64, but that was evidently a smoke screen so folks wouldn't know the real deal. There are some gems in there, early versions of later First Rays things & some OK raga-like improvisations.

There was a kick-ass 2-LP vinyl boot called "Never Fade" I recommend, but quite a bit of the good bootlegs have now been issued in legit form on Experience Hendrix subsidiary Dagger Records, as well as South Saturn Delta, Valleys of Neptune, Blue Wild Angel and other legit releases. Nonetheless, Blues Project Outtakes is worth snagging if only for the full version of New Rising Sun, 3 min. of which was issued on First Rays...

Um, sorry... that was Voodoo Soup with the 3 min. of New Rising Sun on it. *doh*

Destroy: These are really piracies rather than bootlegs, but all the effin bogus Curtis Knight, Lonnie Youngblood, etc. horse manure. Includes things like Rare Hendrix, Moods, blah-blah... Destroy! Smash! Melt!

Recommend this -- not exactly a bootleg, but very, very good: http://theheatwarps.tumblr.com/post/1129618708/saturday-will-mark-40-years-since-jimi-red-wined