Nine to the Universe

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Lore & Background

The tracks on Nine to the Universe were recorded between March and August 1969 at the Record Plant and The Hit Factory in New York City. Unlike his previous efforts, producer Alan Douglas mostly retained the original backing tracks and musicians. However, he came up with the titles, since Hendrix did not give names to these jams. One instrumental was titled "Young/Hendrix", after organist Larry Young and another "Jimi/Jimmy Jam", after guitarist Jim McCarty. Bassist Dave Holland commented: "I'm not quite sure why I was called, but I was real happy to do it. It was a lot of fun and very informal. Nothing was really planned ... It was real loose, and Jimi seemed as if he was putting it together as he went." McCarty added: "None of that stuff was ever intended to be released ... To me it was embarrassing. I'm sure that Jimi would have said, 'You're out of your fucking mind!' and never let it happen. It was all about people trying to make a buck off of Jimi Hendrix."

In Their Own Story

Reprise Records released the album in March 1980 in the US, where it reached number 127 on the Billboard 200 album chart. In June 1980, Polydor Records issued it in the UK, but it did not chart. The album has not been re-released, but most of the songs have been reissued on various Hendrix compilations, without Douglas's edits. According to Hendrix biographer Harry Shapiro, WEA released the album in 1979 in Brazil with a different cover and sequencing.

Reader's Guide

In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau gave Nine to the Universe a "B+" and called it "bracing progressive R&B" showcasing Hendrix's most jazz-oriented improvisations. However, he questioned "whether tighter structures wouldn't have made [Hendrix] think harder and faster", while finding that Young, being the only jazz musician, sounded less "far out" than usual. Paul Evans gave it three-and-a-half out of five stars in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992) and said the ethics of Douglas' production were questionable but resulted in a fusion style in which Hendrix "sounds great", citing the album as the most "vital" of the Douglas-produced records. According to music scholar Craig Hansen Werner, along with Miles Davis' "Right Off" (1971) and the Sonny Sharrock albums Guitar (1986) and Seize the Rainbow (1987), Nine to the Universe was one of the few works that suggested the direction Hendrix and Davis would have explored had they worked together.

Did You Know?

• Nine to the Universe was the third posthumous Hendrix compilation produced by Alan Douglas.
• The album has never been reissued or released on compact disc.
• Four of the tracks have been re-released without Douglas's edits.
• Producer Alan Douglas came up with all the track titles because Hendrix did not name these jams.
• WEA released the album in Brazil in 1979 with a different cover and sequencing.