Jimi Hendrix’s Estate Keeps His Musical Legacy Alive

Fifty-five years after his death, Experience Hendrix releases a box set featuring recordings for the guitarist’s second album, Axis: Bold as Love.

Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) performs on stage at Woburn Pop Festival, Woburn Abbey, UK, August 1968. (Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)

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Experience Hendrix L.L.C. was formed thirty years ago in 1995. The company has been responsible for revitalizing the catalog, image, and earnings of the most famous and influential electric guitarist in history, Jimi Hendrix. Since its

establishment, the organization led by Jimi’s sister, Janie Hendrix, has compiled an extensive series of archival album releases, made film documentaries, launched annual tours with respected artists performing the guitarist’s music (apart from a recent five-year hiatus), engaged in merchandising, and published historical articles on their official website.

September 18 marks the fifty-fifth anniversary of Hendrix’s death in London. He landed in England in September 1966 and launched his own artistic revolution, a world away from his roots in Seattle and his endless series of back-up gigs across America with R&B acts including the Isley Brothers. Without his inimitable style, his self-assured performance, and stylistic innovations, neither the electric guitar nor popular music would be the same afterwards.

This landmark will be followed by the November 7 release of a new deluxe edition of the second Jimi Hendrix Experience album Axis: Bold as Love. The original record was first released in December 1967 in Britain and Europe, and in America on January 10, 1968, and was certified platinum in 1986. This article examines how Hendrix’s recorded music legacies have been curated and sustained since the mid-1990s.

Before Experience Hendrix

After Hendrix’s tragic death, production of the guitarist’s music was in the hands of his allegedly exploitative manager, Michael Jeffery who died in a mysterious 1973 plane crash. Jeffery, who had signed Hendrix to his management and publishing company, Yameta, was responsible for the initial series of authorized, rapidly released posthumous albums including The Cry of Love (1971), Rainbow Bridge (1971), and War Heroes (1972). Contractual and financial obligations to Warner Bros. Records meant that Jeffery had to address those situations promptly, but the uneven quality of the records (and many that followed) and their hasty delivery undermined Hendrix’s creative reputation.

When Jimi’s father, Al Hendrix, was placed in administrative control of the guitarist’s estate in 1970, the actual conduct of the business affairs was left to attorney Leo Branton, Jr. The elder Hendrix sued Branton in 1993, claiming that the business had been mismanaged and that the attorney conducted unauthorized transactions. A legal agreement was reached in 1995, granting Al Hendrix full control of Jimi’s songs.

Estate Curation

After the establishment of the family-controlled company, one of its initial tasks was to reset Jimi Hendrix’s musical legacy following years of substandard and disorganized releases by other parties. 1997’s First Rays of the New Rising Sun (reissued in 2010) unified key recordings made between 1968 and 1970 that had previously been scattered across the first three studio releases overseen by Jeffery. While some uncertainty existed about whether Hendrix intended to make his record a double or triple-disc collection, seventeen songs were issued on a single CD to lay the foundation for Experience Hendrix’s catalog refurbishment.

The estate has supervised the release of over forty albums of Hendrix’s studio and live recordings in conjunction with the guitarist’s main engineer, Eddie Kramer. A licensing deal with Sony Music, first signed in 2009 and renewed in 2017, has been central to the growth and distribution of the refreshed Hendrix catalog. Some releases included DVD documentaries exploring the making of the music, and the archival discs have also been paired with annotation from a variety of leading rock journalists.

Experience Hendrix Catalog Director, John McDermott, was contacted for comments about the 2025 Axis: Bold as Love box set that includes 28 previously unreleased recordings, and future plans for sustaining the guitarist’s legacy. Noting that this album’s reissue is the estate’s main focus for this year, McDermott stated “We are excited to share that music with Jimi’s fans as the 5 LP [or 4 CD] set really provides a window into Jimi’s creative process during 1967. We hope that hearing the development of such Hendrix favorites as ‘Little Wing’ and ‘Castles Made Of Sand’ will provide a deeper appreciation and understanding for what Axis: Bold as Love became. This is a truly beloved album and it warrants the special attention.”

Asked about possible commemoration of upcoming Hendrix milestones such as the debut Are You Experienced album celebrating sixty years in 2027, McDermott said no special plans are being made, and he emphasized that “our focus is always driven by Jimi’s music.” He also stressed that the forthcoming box set is part of the estate’s reissue mission to share Hendrix’s music and to provide “the best possible audio quality, proper annotation and historical context.”

Best-Sellers

While specific figures on Experience Hendrix’s best-selling albums were unavailable, McDermott said “Live At Woodstock [1999], BBC Sessions [1998], Valleys Of Neptune [2010], People, Hell & Angels [2013], and First Rays Of The New Rising Sun [1997]” were among the hit releases, alongside The Jimi Hendrix Experience box set (2000) and South Saturn Delta (1997).

Billboard chart figures suggest that the mainstream market for Hendrix archival releases has leveled off in recent years, though a devoted niche audience continues to buy the records. In the past decade, no new Hendrix album has spent more than four weeks on the Top 200, with 2018’s Both Sides of the Sky as the leader, peaking at #8 in its debut week of March 24 that year. Prior to this, 2010’s Valleys of Neptune (#4) and 2013’s People, Hell and Angels (#2) were notable successes, each spending more than ten weeks on the chart.

The Hendrix archives have not been exhausted, and it’s likely that there will be more curated recordings by the guitar legend, filling the shelves of the fans and the many completists around the globe.