Lost audio of Jimi Hendrix’s last performance featured in Ronnie Scott documentary 

Virgin Radio

31 Jan 2022, 17:05

Credit: Rex

Hendrix plays with Eric Burdon and War in a never-before-heard tape of his last performance. 

Ronnie Scott was a British tenor saxophonist and owner of a notorious jazz club in London, and in a new documentary about his life, we get to hear lost audio of Jimi Hendrix’s final performance in September 1970. 

Credit: Getty

Credit: Getty

The documentary, which is due to premiere on 11 February, contains unseen and unheard performances from Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club from the likes of Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Chet Baker, Van Morrison and a lot more. 

Possibly the most exciting is the never-before-heard audio of Jimi Hendrix playing with Eric Burdon and War just two days before his death, which was recorded by an audience member. 

The tape also includes interviews with other people attending the show that night including guitarist Howard E. Scott. 

Watch the trailer below:

In a trailer for the film, Howard can be heard saying: “To recall what happened that night at Ronnie Scott’s was a magical night, and I’ll never forget it. 

“We were booked at Ronnie Scott’s, Eric Burdon and War. We were probably one of the hottest bands in London at the time. We were on fire.”

During their set at the jazz club, the band began playing a cover of ‘Mother Earth’ by Memphis Slim, and Scott noticed Hendrix heading towards the stage with a guitar in his hand. 

Recalling the moment, Scott says in the documentary: “I was standing on stage, and I saw him out in the audience, and he had a Strat [Stratocaster] in his hands, and he was coming towards the stage, and I noticed his eyes so white and wide open. 

“He was ready to play.”

He added: “Jimi lit into a guitar solo, I mean, me and Jimi were just cutting the place up, we were tearing it up, just me and him, back and forth, back and forth… That night at Ronnie’s my feet weren’t touching the ground.” 

A few days later, Hendrix died, and Howard Scott became the last guitarist to ever play with him. 

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