Rating: 
Summary: JIMI AT HIS GREATEST!!
Review: FINALLY Jimi got to play the Rhythm Rock and Blues he wanted to play before his untimely death. Still greatest rock guitarist ever. Even though the concert footage is in black and white the impact is still tremendous!! Wow! The Machine Gun performance is still the greatest rock performance I ever heard. Just to see Machine Gun is worth the price of the DVD alone.
Rating:
Summary: THE JEWEL OF THIS DVD IS THE CONCERT FOOTAGE!!!!
Review: You'd want to buy this dvd for the black and white concert footage alone. The concert footage was recorded on January 1 , 1970. It was the first of two shows performed that day.
When you watch the footage you'll feel as if you were snuck into a Jimi Hendrix concert. The footage is filmed with amateur black and white cameras set up at different areas of the theatre. If you are a real Hendrix/Band of Gypsys fan you will not mind the quality of the footage. You do get the legendary performance of "Machine Gun" thats on the Band of Gypsys cd so that alone makes it worth buying.
One performance that I love is the last song played at the concert ; "Earth Blues". The performance isn't in its entirety (1 of 3 that isn't. The others are "Stop" and "Who Knows". In "Who Knows" Miles' scatting is cut short.) but , from what you get , it is awesome. The dvd picks up the performance during the guitar solo. You see Jimi putting total concentration into this song. Its nice to see Jimi , Billy , and Buddy just jam during this particular performance. Its fun to listen to and , at times , very intense. Check it out and see for yourself.
The interview segment is very good. I found just about everyone interviewed compelling but the segment is only gravy as far as I'm concerned. You can live with it or without it. The real jewel of this dvd is the black and white Fillmore East concert footage. Although during the interview segment they do show a couple of songs from the December 31st and January 1 concerts. The concert clips that are in color are from the December 31st concert.
Rating: 
Summary: Not enough Jimi, concert footage has no color
Review: This DVD is a mixed bag and I can't really recommend it for several reasons. One of which being that I get the feeling that this DVD was not a labor of love but rather done quickly for the money, has an agenda that isn't explored to any reasonable degree and is uninformative.The documentary offers little new information about the Band of Gypsys and focuses primarily on Jimi's being black and what that may or may not have ment to him. There are no interviews with Jimi on this subject. Instead we get the slightly talented and very derivative Lenny Kravitz and the mediocre Slash babbling about rock and race etc. and what Hendrix meant to them as musicians of color. How come Lenny didn't mention his jewish brothers and sisters? Isn't he half Jewish? And anyway who cares about Lenny and Slashes' opinions anyway? They're both musical lightweights that never knew Hendrix and should never been included in the film. If the criteria for interviewing people was their skin color, why not interview people with real talent like Prince? Or George Clinton? Or some other of Jimi's contemporaries. Or here's an idea: Jimi himself! The interviews with Vernon Reid made little more sense, he's a much more gifted musician and insightful man than Duddy and Slash. But I really don't care about his opinions on what Hendrix may have felt or about what Hendrix meant to him. I mean who cares? He never knew Hendrix either and adds no real insight only opinion and speculation. There are interviews with people that actually knew and played with Hendrix such as Buddy Miles, Billy Cox, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding. Not to mention Jimi's road manager Gerry Stickells. But they're not very in-depth. And there are some nice bits with Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer. But we never find out much information as to the formation of the Band of Gypsys and very little information as to why it broke up. I want the dirt dammit! And we get an embarrassing segment where Buddy plays and sings along to his performance at the Fillmore. Its just SO pathetic and should never have been included in the film. The documentary takes up the bulk of this DVD and its neither terribly interesting nor very informative. Its OK at best. The only reason to buy this DVD is to see about an hours worth of B&W concert footage videotaped at the first Fillmore show. There are great versions of Power of Love, Machine Gun and Them Changes, among others. You get to see Hendrix really play and in a different and funkier context than with the Experience. You get to see Hendrix do the famous version of Machine Gun from the Band of Gypsies album. Which is fantastic, but the black 'n white is just such a tease, especially when the camera dork focuses on the light show going on in back of the band. "Um, its like, um, in black and white man." Gray blobs just aren't that interesting.
The quality of the videotape is at best primitive. There are ghosts a plenty, out of focus camera work and really only two angles: one from Jimi's side and one from Billy's. Of course the sound quality sucks as well. Why didn't they dub in the proper recorded versions of these songs? Its not like they didn't have the tape. My biggest complaint though is that the video is not in sync with the sound. This is the 21st century folks, I could have syncronized the material on my home freaking computer. What is interesting though is Hendrix's reaction to Buddy Miles' playing. There seems to be some dissatisfaction/resentment going on there and Buddy was fired shortly thereafter and Mitch was brought back into the fold. Proving that Hendrix was really all about the music. Ah well, I'll take what I can get but "Band of Gypsys (Live at the Fillmore East)" just isn't very good. The special features are especially scanty, there are very few color photos or photos of any kind. I was disappointed and felt ripped off or at least misled. I'm probably not going to watch the thing again, not the documentary in any case. Buy it if you must.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Hendrix Music Ever
Review: On this DVD you'll find two things: 1) a documentary, 2) an hour of uninterrupted Band of Gypsies concert footage. The documentary could've been better. They focus more on Jimi and less on the Band of Gypsies. The footage is spread out, poorly presented, and no one song is presented in full. The concert footage, on the other hand, is amazing. Eight songs are presented, all are complete and uninterrupted. Buy the DVD, but skip the documentary and go straight for the concert footage.
Rating: 
Summary: Courtesy of the 101st Airborne
Review: I may be being generous wih 4 stars, but they are just for the concert footage and the meaningful interviews. The only meaningful ones for me are the ones with Mitch, Noel, Billy and Buddy and the engineer in the studio, whose name escapes me right now - but he was good. No, I don't care what Slash, Vernon Reid or Lenny Kravitz think, although I think Vernon Reid rocked with Living Color. The other reviewers have got it all right. Far too much talk from inconsequential people, no color footage from the main concert, a lot of wasted time, Race being retrofitted into the picture by people with their own agendas, and so on... One guy, it might have been the opinionated talker from The Ghetto Fighters, whoever they were, suggested that this was the band that Jimi really wanted after all, not the band that he was given to play with in England. Reality check... Jimi had FOUR top ten hits in the UK before the US even realized what that God-gifted Seattle boy was worth. He liked England, and England liked him. As for the band he was given... does this clown think a man like Jimi would have stayed with a band who didn't work for him? It has long been discussed that the Experience days were Jimi's happiest time. He was cushioned by being part of a band, and they produced some stunning music. An interview with Slash, but not Chas Chandler, the man who discovered Jimi, managed him, and whom Jimi called during his last desperate hours because of the bond the men always had... Band of Gypsies is a good album, a timeless album, but it ain't Voodoo Chile, Purple Haze, Wind Cries Mary, Hey Joe, Burning Of The Midnight Lamp, Red House, Spanish Castle Magic, All Along The Watchtower... need I go on? The actual Band of Gypsies trio were actually good. Billy Cox was no more than an adequate bass player, but Buddy Miles, while lacking Mitch Mitchell's subtle jazz flair, was a very solid and capable drummer. I also remember his work with Billy Rich on guitar genius John McLaughlin's classic psychedelia album Devotion, so the man does have talent. Incredible to think that two thirds of the band were Screaming Eagles - 101st Airborne Vets, as Jimi met Billy in the Airborne. Thankfully, the boys were out before the Airmobile shipped out to Vietnam. The DVD is worth having for the serious Hendrix fan, if only for the unique concert footage, but as other fans have said, there are waaay better Jimi DVDs around.
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