Excellent

Izabella shows the greatest work of Hendrix career. All around a must have!!!

Might want to go with the 2-disc reissue

I've owned this 1994 MCA release for almost ten years and have long thought it was a lousy production, despite an amazing performance with the Band of Gypsies' often visionary group improvisation. They had minimal rehearsal before this performance, which in no way inhibited their creativity and energy on stage. A few of the songs they whipped up the day before.

But with this MCA release, you have to listen really hard in order to appreciate all the bnad's dynamics, such as what other musicians are doing and how they are relating to each other. Often times, Jimi will basically be playing a two-chord rhythm chug, which makes sense if someone else is soloing but otherwise sounds lousy. And Lo! Larry Lee is there in the background, almost totally edited out, and indistinguishable unless you are listening for it. Most of the percussion is waaaay in the background, apart from Mitch who is barely keeping time at more than one point and in his soloing sounds at the end of his rope.

The engineers also monkeyed around with the crowd noise a lot, which is irritating (the photos in the booklet are also blatantly manipulated). One reviewer below notes that most of the crowd had left, and if you listen closely you can easily hear the idiot editor almost randomly waving the volume knob on the canned crowd track. Pathetic. All in all a botched edit.

So I give it two stars for the crap production. The Experience Hendrix label has a 1999 two-disc release that I haven't listened to closely, but I suggest you favor that one and AVOID this MCA release. Not only that, the '99 release (called, "Live at Woodstock," this one is "Jimi Hendrix: Woodstock") actually has the tracks in order.

One of Jimi's most famous performances

This is definitely not the best release of Hendrix's Woodstock live show, but this was the first of them. Anybody interested in Hendrix or virtuoso guitar playing in general must own this performance. Jimi left us very little of his studio works, and the main part of his impressive musical legacy is his numerous live performances. Here he plays his usual mix of popular hits, like "Fire" and "Purple Haze", some very emotional pieces, like "Red House" and "Villanova Junction", funky "Hear My Train A Comin'", one of his most famous pieces, "Star-Spangled Banner", and a live jam. As usual, live versions of songs differ much from their studio interpretations. I can't say that Jimi's or his supporting band's performance is absolutely flawless, but that's live show, and it is precious as it was played.



The "but" part of my review only concerns this release. As it's been stated in other reviews, it's been edited and altered somewhat, and there are better releases available now. My 5* rating only concerns the music, not the release.