At first glance, Live in Maui is yet another entry in the steady stream of posthumous releases following Jimi Hendrix’s tragic passing in September of 1970.  Let it be written that, by and large, any new music from Hendrix- live or studio recordings- is often justifiably welcomed with unabashed anticipation, at best, and curiosity, at worst.  This one, likely a little of both.

The origin story alone should bring some eyes and ears beyond those already in the Hendrix loop: Jimi and his Experience in a cow field on the side of a volcano one Thursday afternoon in July, performing in gusting tropical winds to several hundred shirtless longhairs and their ladies all seated, by astrological sign, in the grazing grass.  For free!  And it’s being filmed- themed a “Vibratory Color/Sound Experiment”- for inclusion in an eventual movie, Rainbow Bridge– a trippy, pseudo-documentary answer to Easy Rider involving surfing and UFOs, shot on the campus of an Episcopalian girls’ school empty for summer vacation.

Hendrix, too, thought he was being given an island vacation when he, drummer Mitch Mitchell, and bassist Billy Cox arrived in the summer of 1970, ahead of a scheduled August 1st date in Honolulu.  Instead, he was coaxed into an acting cameo and a two-set performance; the ensuing soundtrack deal would help fund the construction of his new Electric Lady studio in New York City.  The tortuous, sometimes greasy, details of this escapade are laid out nicely in Music, Money, Madness… Jimi Hendrix In Maui– the blu-ray doc included in this three-disc collection.

As for the music, it’s a loose and limber two hours of Hendrix, Mitchell, and Cox having fun.  Some new material Jimi was showcasing on his The Cry of Love tour, possibly to be included in the awaited follow-up to Electric Ladyland, is present: “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)” and “In From The Storm” among familiar hits such as “Fire,” “Purple Haze,” and “Foxey Lady.”  The guitar king is flirty, dynamic, and assuring, masterfully massaging sighs and moans from his Whammy bar palpitations or spitting out lava from his Marshall stacks.

For the second set, one during which Hendrix switched from his trademark Strat to his Gibson Flying V, as well as encouraged the rather sedate crowd to rise and dance, Jimi seems content to just let it flow, floating through the gestating electric blues of “Villanova Junction,” “Red House,” and “Dolly Dagger.”  Freewheeling exercises such as “Jam Back at the House” or a raging closer, “Stone Free,” feel almost like Hendrix and his mates are getting in a little road work, out in the country, before the main event in the capitol city.

Where Live in Maui is essential to those outside of Hendrix completists is as a necessary replacement, nearly 50 years later, for the Rainbow Bridge soundtrack that was assembled in the wake of the project.  This is how Jimi and his Experience really sounded on the edge of Haleakah Crater, channeling the true spirit of the moment; in spite of what now is seen mostly as a comical failure of a film.  Leave it to Hendrix to let the music, finally, emerge as the genuinely heady and untamed channel of energy it was then and remains today.