Customer Reviews

The Kennedy Experience

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This isn't your typical Jimi tribute fare, then again Nigel isn't your typical classical violinst. This is not for the timid listener as it challenges conventional perceptions. The only things classical about this disc is the ensemble and Nigels interpretation of Jimi's music. A unique and masterful job is the result of the explorations of Hendrix's classics. Kudos to Nigel for crossing the lines and blurring the perceptions of music. The songs chosen allow for beautiful improvisations, at times frentic, at others soothing, that are as minding bending as the original rock versions, maybe even more so. The first three songs are extended jam sessions, structured around the fiery bow work of Nigel. The jazzy intonations are puntuated by the guitars, bass and of course oboe and cello. Of the first three tracks "1983" is the more innovative and spacier of the jams. Throughout the disc Nigel explores areas that ebb and flow, melodically shifting and grinding out the music. Nigel is careful to not "out Jimi" Hendrix by overextending his skills to the point of nauseam virtuosity, he carefully plots and exerts his own signature on the compositions as only he can. "Drifting" is exceptioanlly beautiful and lyrical, a superb rendition of a classic Hendrix tune. There are times when the songs are barely recognizable but he eventually brings it all back home, harmonious rapture being the end result. If you like jazz or the music of Jimi this is a disc for you. The free form violin of Nigel, coupled with the timeless compostions of a guitar God make for an undaunted new Hendrix experience.

Hats off to Kennedy for this hommage to Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix may not exactly be my cup of tea, but I have enjoyed every minute of this recording. Perhaps some of this album's previous reviewers should try to grasp the idea that a violin has more than one venue for its use. I have seen Kennedy perform with now three major American orchestras and have been come away feeling as though I had seen something special, and I have. Music and art are what we as listeners and observers make of it. I have long admired this performer's committment to performing music and not making music easier to listen to just to gain an audience for classical music. As a student of classical music (what's really in that name?), I enjoy few things as much as a performance that has me leave the hall feeling as though I'd been challenged as a listener...not challenged to make sense of the music, but challenged to really hear the music - its nuance and those qualities which make live performance of classical music different from any other experience we can have.

Bravo, Kennedy! And bravo as well to those hearty listeners who are willing to take a chance. The performers on this album are excellent, and all that the nay-sayers can seem to find wrong is that these people have somehow "disgraced" their instruments by performing this music. I hope that these people do not consider themselves music historians in any sense. For how can we condemn this album and praise toher music whose composers challenged the norms? These composers would include: Beethoven, Haydn, Stravinsky, Brahms, Wagner, Mahler, Schoenberg, Shostakovich and many others. Careful of what you consider yourselves, my friends....you may have to actually BE that which you profess to be!

I cannot be certain if the album is targeted for classical or rock listeners. Nigel Kennedy has blurred this classical/rock interpretation with soul moving gusts. A spiritual aspirations
and a cut from most sonic experiences i have come across. Highly recommended.

I gotta agree with the music fan from Michigan...kudos to NK for this bute of an album.Knowing full well that this wasn't to be symphonic classic music, I found this to be very refreshing. All me fave Jimi tunes being set to the frantic urgency of Kennedy's flailing bow, and the accompanying musos bringing their brilliance into line with him, seems to work for me. Of course I was really anxious to see if he would colour between the lines, or would it stray. I think his interpretation is truly wondrous.I'd like to see this guy play with Daevid Allen and Gong, which he was rumoured to be doing for this years Glastonbury Festival, but alas, it wasn't to be.Allinall, a worthy cover of Jimi, but probably not everyone's cuppa tea. Oh well....4tea6zee

Loved it! I was not a fan of Hendrix or classical music, but I went out of curiosity to the Kennedy Hendrix concert in NYC last November, and was mesmerized. Afterward, I had to buy both Hendrix and Kennedy stuff to see where it came from, and found amazing music I never would have found otherwise.

I looked forward to this CD, and off the bat, I have to admit I was initially disappointed that this was not a live album - try Kennedy's Beethoven Violin Concerto to get that "you are there" feel -- but I guess the choices available in the recording studio were more attractive than the perils of a live recording. And this one is still a keeper.

For a first listen, skip the long opener "Third Stone," and go to tracks 2 and 3 - "Little Wing" goes in and out of recognizability, but just this side of "I know that..." and don't miss "1983..." (my favorite) for all the variations, especially that slapping sound that comes out of nowhere to bridge that whole thing together. I didn't like track 5, "Fire" as much on this as Kennedy's previous go at it on the "Stone Free" Hendrix tribute CD -- it lost some punch here.

But overall, I recommend it to music fans of any genre, classical, jazz, celtic, new age, it's all here. And it lives, baby - I play it on long commutes, and it never grows tired. Just save that long opening track for later, when your ear gets attuned to what's going on. Like a previous reviewer I also miss "Hey Joe" from this - but Hey Kennedy - may be there's another LIVE one on the way? Here's hoping.

And if you get hooked, try the Kennedy/Rattle Elgar Violin Concerto - unbelievably gorgeous, especially the added track, Williams' "The Lark Ascending." Pure magic.

Ever since I saw the Kennedy Collective last fall, I have been amazed at the creativity of this classical-music "bad boy."

The concert program was "Bach, Bartok and Hendrix" -- a weird musical juxtaposition that only Nigel Kennedy could pull off. That night he said he was working on an album of his Hendrix arrangements, and now here it is.

Kennedy isn't one of those flash-in-the-pan artists who barrels out of the gate trying to break the rules to create an identity. He has studied -- and mastered -- the classics and has now put to disc his most creative work.

The sounds that he and his ensemble make are unique and surprisingly beautiful. I never knew how purely musical Jimi Hendrix's music really is. Kennedy shows us that musicality exists in the strangest places.

This is not, however, one of those "symphonic tribute" albums. What Kennedy has done is create colorful and inventive arrangements of one of rock 'n' roll's greatest.

My only disappointment is that "Hey Joe" was not included on this album -- it was by far the best piece of the concert.

This is a tough one to classify. What we have here is English violinist Nigel Kennedy (who wants to be known as professionally as "Kennedy," although he signs his brief and gratuitously vulgar liner note as "Nigel") and a group of musicians including Emma Black (cello), Doug Boyle (guitar and dobro), John Etheridge (guitar), David Heath (flute), Rory McFarlane (bass), Kate St. John (oboe), and Gerri Sutyak (cello) in energetically intense renditions of the music of Jimi Hendrix. It's not quite classical, not quite rock, not quite jazz--but whatever it is, it is done with gusto and sincerity, not just as a clever novelty.

That sincerity is the saving grace of this recording, which could easily have crossed the line to become a major annoyance rather than the minor entertainment it turns out to be. There are moments when the music does indeed sound like "classical" music, moments where the music rocks out, and moments when it seems to have the improvisatory give and take of jazz. There are six Hendrix tunes covered in this set: "Third Stone from the Sun," "Little Wing," "1983...(A Merman I Should Turn to Be)," "Drifting," "Fire," and yes, "Purple Haze." "Third Stone" is to these ears their most successful interpretation; indeed, it is a pity that music such as this will never get played on the radio in these days of FM wasteland. Recommended highly to Hendrix freaks, Kennedy completists, and the otherwise musically adventurous.

I don't like Nigel Kennedy's Four Seasons interpretation, I find it too agressive and too fast to be true to the original music. That beeing said, his Hendrix interpretation, though equally far (if not further) from the original, is really fun to listen to. (And even more so if you visualize the sour faces of dogmatic Hendrix- or Classical-Fans listening to this record whilst doing so yourself... ;-)

I never listened to Nigel before this recording, and never will after this recording. Luckily I got this album from the library; no money wasted! The songs resemble Hendrix in name only. The rest is clatter clatter clatter screech blah blah. If you love Hendrix, you'll be sad to know he is spinning in his grave every time someone pops this in.

This is junk. If you want to hear a real violinist, there are plenty of players far better then Mr. Kennedy, who's playing seems to be deliberatly ugly and shapeless. If you want to hear the real Jimi Hendrix, he left a rich recorded legacy.