Paul Gilbert will celebrate the 35th anniversary of his album Tribute To Jimi Hendrix with a digital reissue, available for the first time on June 12 via Music Theories Recordings.
The release includes performances recorded at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival in 1991, where Gilbert stepped in as a headliner at short notice and performed a set of Jimi Hendrix songs.
On 2 June 1991, Paul Gilbert had been invited to the Frankfurt Jazz Festival in Germany to trade a few solos with Albert Collins, who was headlining the festival. At the time, Gilbert was riding high with Mr Big and Lean Into It had not long been released.
“I was already in Europe, finishing up a Mr. Big tour,” Gilbert said, “so the travel would be easy. I said, Yes!.” However, shortly after arriving at the venue, Gilbert learned that Collins had suffered a sudden health issue and would be unable to perform.
“The promoter was panicking and asked me to be the headlining act instead,” Gilbert says. “I didn’t have a band with me and I didn’t have any solo material prepared.”
The promoter quickly assembled a backing band using the bassist and drummer from Ten Years After, the group led by Alvin Lee, who were also appearing at the festival.
“The only thing I could think to do was to quickly rehearse some Jimi Hendrix songs,” Gilbert says, “and make the solos long enough to fill up a whole set. I told the promoter, ‘We only have time to learn five songs, so I’m going to have to play REALLY LONG SOLOS.”
The promoter said that as it was a jazz festival, this would be fine.
So the band and Paul jumped into rehearsal, and a couple of hours later, did the show with scorching renditions of Red House, Hey Joe, Highway Chile, Midnight and Purple Haze.
“It turned out great,” Paul says. “I don’t think I’ve ever played such long solos in my life.
“The panic that comes from just trying to survive an unexpected musical situation can bring things out of a musician that would never happen if everything were rehearsed and planned out.
“As AI figures out how to make perfect productions, it might be a human being’s reaction to unexpected twists and turns that are the most interesting to listen to. At the same time, I do like to have some rehearsal with my band before a tour if I can get it.”
Around that time, Paul Gilbert also had a cover band, The Electric Fence, with his friends Jeff Martin and Russ Parrish. “When I would get home between Mr. Big tours, Jeff, Russ and I would make a list of 25 songs and challenge ourselves to see if we could learn them in a week.
“Then we’d do a gig. Most of the songs were Hendrix, Beatles, David Bowie, etc, and I did quite a bit of the lead singing. So hopping up on stage with little preparation was something I was used to and enjoyed a lot.”
Despite initially feeling worried that a Tribute To Jimi Hendrix feels like an important mission that should take lots of time to prepare and produce, Gilbert now believes the spontaneity of the performance captured the spirit of Hendrix more authentically.
“Jimi’s songs are such great vehicles for jamming,” Paul says. “His writing invites musicians to play with each other and listen to each other. The songs are flexible enough to allow musicians to keep their own style and still make the song work.”
“In the end, the pressure of pulling everything together quickly in front of an audience, and being worry-free about endless guitar jamming, may actually have brought me closer to Hendrix’s spirit than if I had planned everything while sitting in a chair.”
Paul Gilbert releases Tribute to Jimi Hendrix on 12 June 2026 via Music Theories Recordings. Pre-orders are available from lnk.to/TributeToJimiHendrix.
