Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Jimi Hendrix: Jimi Plays Berkeley Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 12, 2012

It’s convenient to think of decades as discrete units of time that somehow encompass certain zeitgeists, but the facts of course point to time as a continuum, with social currents spilling over the figurative edges of any arbitrarily drawn boundary. As standard as it is to think of the sixties as a time of social turmoil, political uprising and youthful unrest, the fact is all of those elements continued to spread at least through the early seventies. When Jimi Hendrix took the stage at Berkeley’s Community Theater for a Memorial Day weekend performance on May 30, 1970, he had only a few more months to live, but he was front and center as one of the biggest symbols of a youth culture that was still rising up in droves to protest all sorts of perceived inequities perpetrated by that amorphous entity known as The Man. Jimi had attained the role of a sort of mystical shaman for that era’s youth, ushering them into an era of what was hoped would be Universal Love, but it’s instructive to remember that the “real world” kept intruding into that halcyon fantasy. In fact only three weeks before Jimi’s Berkeley concert, the Kent State shootings had reminded the entire world of the dangers of the burgeoning conflict between young people and the so-called Establishment. Jimi Plays Berkeley has been a frustrating “might have been” experience (no pun intended) for Hendrix fans virtually since the night it was filmed in May 1970. As is detailed in the fascinating liner notes accompanying this release, the footage was shot under less than ideal conditions, without enough preparation time and rather stunningly without even enough film to capture the entire concert. The footage was in fact largely forgotten for several months until Hendrix’s untimely death in September 1970, at which point it became all too depressingly “important” to those wanting to cash in on the notoriety of the rock star’s demise. That started a long, strange trip that included lawsuits, threatened lawsuits, and several different versions of the film being assembled, none of which feature enough unedited Hendrix to totally satisfy hardcore aficionados.

Because the filmmakers didn’t have enough actual concert footage to make this a palatable (and marketable) theatrical film, they ended up “padding” it with certain elements, though it must be stated that in hindsight some of the opening scenes are absolutely hilarious. This version has reinstated some nice snippets of the sound check that Jimi relented to doing (he hated them, evidently, but realized that with this concert supposedly being filmed and recorded, it was probably a good idea). But the really entertaining footage here is a completely surreal “showdown” between those gull-darned Hippies out on the Berkeley streets and some denizens of a nearby pool hall. The conflict is over something that will probably make some of you laugh out loud: the young folks are picketing a showing of Woodstock, protesting the fact that they need to pay a $3.50 (!) ticket price when they’re convinced they “made” the movie. One actually fairly nice pool hall guy tells them they may have the right idea but are going about it the wrong way, at which point the longhairs all start screaming about fascism. It’s instructive, to say the least, a little time machine window giving us some insight into what things must have been like back in the “Dark Ages” of 1970.

This new extended version of Jimi Plays Berkeley reinstates both welcome and some perhaps unneeded elements. In the latter category, the images of the Berkeley riots which accompanied “Machine Gun” have been reinserted, to varying degrees of impact. (These elements were filmed separately and show considerable wear and tear). On the plus side, snippets of songs not included in the original theatrical exhibition make their debut here, including the aforementioned “Machine Gun”, along with “Voodoo Child” and “Hear My Train A-Comin’”. The biggest complaint here is the paucity of unedited material, with only “Johnny B. Goode”, “The Star Spangled Banner” and “Purple Haze” making it through more or less unaltered. However, all three of these songs show Hendrix in his full throttle, quasi-religiously proselytizing mode, leading his faithful along with growls, squeals and copious feedback from his nearby amp.

Probably the biggest selling point to this release, aside from the “found” footage, is the inclusion of lossless audio, as well as the complete second set, included as an audio only supplement. (It should be noted that the main menu may lead some to believe that the entire concert, i.e., both sets, is presented as an audio only supplement, since words to that effect are featured on the little “Special Features” placard from the disc’s boot up. Selecting the “Special Features” submenu then brings up the only two clickable options that appear on the placard, the Second Set and the Abe Jacob interview. See screencap 10 for an image of the Main Menu and why some may find it initially misleading.) Evidently there is more film out there somewhere, alluded to in the really excellently done liner notes, but that has not yet been handed over to the executors of Jimi’s estate and/or his family. As incomplete as this “experience” is, it’s still a fascinating glimpse into the closing era of one of the most titanic stars of his era.

Jimi Hendrix: Jimi Plays Berkeley Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jimi Plays Berkeley is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Music and Legacy with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. This high definition presentation was sourced from the original negative, but the film's 16mm source elements as well as its haphazard filming techniques undercut a lot of the potential of the Blu-ray. Contrast is virtually nonexistent at times, so much so that Jimi seems to float disembodied, with his hands and face often simply disappearing into the shrouded background at certain angles, leaving only his brightly spangled costumes visible. (This presentation is so dark in fact that our automatic aspect ratio measuring tool is convinced this is a 1.78:1 presentation, since so much of the side of individual frames is so consistently a true black and the tool can't differentiate between the end of the frame and the beginning of the pillar box.) The image is rather soft and grainy, as should be expected given its 16mm source, though colors (what you can see of them) are still reasonably vivid and well saturated. Jimi Plays Berkeley points up the quandary facing reviewers when we need to assess video quality and assign a score for these reviews: if I were to base the score solely on how accurately this reproduces the original 16mm look of the film, this would probably score at least a 4, perhaps a 4.5. But when simply assessing the bottom line quality of the image, it would be fair to mark this down as low as a 1 or 1.5. I've therefore tried to take a middle ground, erring perhaps slightly on the side of an accurate reproduction of the source elements.

Jimi Hendrix: Jimi Plays Berkeley Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jimi Plays Berkeley has various lossless audio options for different elements included on the Blu-ray. The actual concert film features both a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix as well as an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo mix. The supplemental audio only Second Set extra features both a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix as well as an uncompressed LPCM 5.1 mix (see Supplemental Features below for more information). All of these audio options feature newly done mixes by longtime Hendrix engineer Eddie Kramer. The LPCM 2.0 mix is probably the closest approximation to the original theatrical sound mix and it is nicely compact, though occasionally hampered by the boisterous audience noise. That audience noise is shuttled to the rear channels in the 5.1 mix, and while it can be distracting at times, it helps to have it in a more "spacious" environment. One way or the other, both of these tracks offer sterling fidelity, with the sometimes actually slightly painful feedback spilling through the sound field and Jimi's guitar maintaining its almost vocal qualities. While Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell are virtually invisible in the actual video, here their contributions shine impressively, with Mitchell's drumming propulsive and obviously inspiring Hendrix on to new flights of fancy.

Jimi Hendrix: Jimi Plays Berkeley Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Second Set (1:07:28) contains the entire performance of Jimi's second set at Berkeley on May 30, 1970. This ostensibly audio only supplement plays to some appropriately psychedelic imagery filling the menu screen in 1080p. There are two audio options here, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which streams at an average rate of around 5.0 mbps (sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less) and an uncompressed LPCM 5.1 mix which holds steady at 6.9 mbps. The set list features:
  Pass It On (Straight Ahead)
  Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)
  Lover Man
  Stone Free
  Hey Joe
  I Don't Live Today
  Machine Gun
  Foxy Lady
  Star Spangled Banner
  Purple Haze
  Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
  


• Abe Jacob Interview (HD; 7:51) features reminiscences from Jacob (the menu lists his surname incorrectly as Jacobs), who did sound at the Monterey Pop Festival, as well as a slew of great Broadway shows (the first Broadway show I saw as a kid was Pippin, featuring Jacob's stellar work). Jacob was soon hired to do sound for Hendrix while they were on tour and he has some great, often funny, anecdotes to share..

Jimi Hendrix: Jimi Plays Berkeley Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As it stands, even in this slightly extended version Jimi Plays Berkeley may be more frustrating than exciting to longtime fans if only because they'll continue to wonder how filmmakers could have been so dunderheaded not have brought enough film to actually capture the entire concert. Add to that the fact that the cameramen may have been (to paraphrase the liner notes) "chemically enhanced" and you have a documentary that is only fitfully as visceral as it really should have been. Still, it's fantastic to see Jimi in such a volcanic, albeit intimate, performance, and that probably makes up for any qualms. This Blu-ray features incredible audio, probably its single most salient selling point, and at least the Second Set is presented unedited. Warts and all, Jimi Plays Berkeley comes Recommended.