LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) -
George Clinton, Chaka Khan, Earth Wind and Fire, and Bootsy Collins are among the first acts to sign on for a
Jimi Hendrix tribute that is slated for release by year's end on MCA.
The project is being overseen by Hendrix's sister, Janie Hendrix, and her husband, Sheldon Reynolds, who plays guitar with EWF. Janie Hendrix also serves as president of Experience Hendrix LLC, the partnership she created with her father, Al Hendrix (who passed away last month), in 1995 after the family took control of the Jimi Hendrix estate.
In addition to musicians of Hendrix's generation, the tribute will also tap several younger performers, "because," Janie says, "Jimi was cross-generational." As the project is still taking shape, a list of tracks and artists has not been finalized.
The tribute is just one of a multitude of Hendrix-related projects coming this year, which also serves as a Hendrix anniversary -- this November he would have turned sixty. The birthday will be marked with a celebration at the Experience Music Project in Seattle and a simultaneous gathering in Paris.
"We'll continue doing what we do," Janie Hendrix says. "We have so much music in the vaults to continue to put out. Jimi was an amazing workaholic." According to Janie, there are still unreleased studio recordings and demos Jimi recorded in his apartment, which will continue to be made available through Experience Hendrix's Dagger Records series, which offers live and outtake recordings through www.jimihendrix.com.
And in addition to the releases, Janie says there's the ongoing pursuit of material that has been hiding for three decades. "We just acquired a few good video and audio finds, but we can't tell you what that is yet," she says. "But it'll come out next year. We're very blessed in getting the rights back. We're one of the few families that were able to do that, and we've been assisting other families in helping them get rights to their families music back. We're here for the long haul. We just want to keep the music and the legacy alive."
