Nine to the Universe

Nine to the Universe is the third posthumous compilation Hendrix release produced by Alan Douglas. The tracks were recorded between March and August 1969 at the Record Plant and The Hit Factory in New York City.^[2] Unlike his previous efforts, Douglas mostly retained the original backing tracks and musicians.^[3] However, he came up with the titles, since Hendrix did not give names to these jams.^[4] 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".^[5] 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."^[5]

Reprise Records released the album in March 1980 in the US, where it reached number 127 on the Billboard 200 album chart^[4] In June 1980, Polydor Records issued it in the UK, but it did not chart.^[4] The album has not been re-released, but most of the songs have been reissued on various Hendrix compilations, without Douglas's edits.^[2] According to Hendrix biographer Harry Shapiro, WEA released the album in 1979 in Brazil with a different cover and sequencing.^[4]

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.^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[8]

• Jimi Hendrix – lead and rhythm guitar all tracks, lead vocals on track 1 (wiped)
• Larry Lee – rhythm guitar on track 4 (his guitar solo was removed)
• Jim McCarty – lead & rhythm guitar on track 2
• Larry Young – organ on track 3
• Billy Cox – bass guitar on tracks 1, 4 & 5
• Dave Holland – bass on track 3
• Roland Robinson – bass on track 2
• Mitch Mitchell – drums on tracks 2 & 4
• Buddy Miles – drums on tracks 1 & 3
• Rocky Isaac – drums on track 5
• Al Marks – percussion on track 5
• Juma Sultan – percussion on track 4 (mixed down)
• Gerardo Velez – percussion on track 4 (mixed down)
• Unknown – tambourine on track 4 (not on the original recording)
• Devon Wilson – backing vocals on track 1 (wiped)