Traffic & Jimi Hendrix - Jam Session (Original FM Broadcast Recording, 1968) (2025)

Jimi Hendrix and Traffic became friends from their first meeting when they played together around the London club scene from 1967 onwards. Sharing a love of technical and musical innovation, and progressive thought, it would not be long until Messrs. Hendrix, Winwood, Capaldi, Wood and Mason collaborated, and in so doing produce a series of instrumental jam sessions. While to date these have been made available on underground releases, and thus only heard by very few, they remain excellent quality recordings, both musically fascinating and eminently listenable.

Alternatively dated as being recorded between 1968 and 1970, this studio material is among the most intriguing unreleased pieces of either performer. The music consists of jams that, in contrast to Traffic's usual melodic sensibilities, range from minor key to almost atonal structure. The jams sound basically spontaneous, organized around particular keys with shifting tempos, and lack a distinct song structure. None of them sound like they were even intended to have vocal parts. For the most part, the piano and drums drive the rhythms while the guitar and flute solo take a back seat.

The extraordinary aspect of the recording is the complementary interplay between Jimi and Chris Wood. While Hendrix builds upon driving vamps that eventually erupt into molten solos, Wood counterbalances with his usual delicate, mellowing flute. The result of this collaboration is at the very least interesting, and sometimes magical. Unlike other Hendrix jam sessions, Jimi seems to have a lot of respect for Traffic and doesn't fully dominate the proceedings, which makes the session perhaps unique to both entities.