Jimi Hendrix performed a free concert in a Haleakala Ranch pasture on July 30, 1970, two months before he died. Scenes from the concert and his time on Maui were made into the film “Rainbow Bridge,” released a year later. A new documentary “Music, Money, Madness . . . Jimi Hendrix In Maui” about the concert and the rock legend comes out later this month. Daniel Teheney/Authentic Hendrix LLC photo
It was called the “Rainbow Bridge Vibratory Color Sound Experiment,” a free concert featuring rock legend Jimi Hendrix, staged in a Haleakala Ranch pasture above Seabury Hall on July 30, 1970.
Scenes from the concert and Hendrix’s time on Maui were captured in the film “Rainbow Bridge,” which was released a year later. It was his last filmed show in America before his tragic death less than two months later.
Fifty years later, a new documentary, “Music, Money, Madness . . . Jimi Hendrix In Maui,” will feature restored concert footage and explore events leading up to the show with never-before-released original film and interviews with participants, including veteran Maui surfer/musician Les Potts. An accompanying new album, “Jimi Hendrix In Maui,” also will be released.
Following on the success of the countercultural movie “Easy Rider,” “Rainbow Bridge” was centered around the idea of a “rainbow bridge” between the unenlightened and enlightened. Filmed without professional actors and featuring everything from surfing and yoga to meditation and tai chi, it culminated with Hendrix’s historic concert with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy Cox.
“It was important to tell the story because the performances were so unique,” explained “Jimi Hendrix In Maui” director John McDermott. “The band was on top of a makeshift stage in a cow pasture in the shadow of Haleakala in a beautiful location. We felt if we could tell the real story of what went on, how it all came together, it was pretty fascinating, and that’s the basis of the film.”
Performances by Jimi Hendrix in an Upcountry pasture 50 years ago appear on the soon-to-be-released album “Live In Maui.” —Brian Byrnes / Authentic Hendrix LLC photo
The author of three books on the rock icon, including “Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight,” McDermott feels the “Rainbow Bridge” film “harmed his posthumous legacy.”
“When the ‘Rainbow Bridge’ album came out there were no live performances from the film and the movie was such a head-scratcher,” he said. “People were very excited having seen him close the ‘Woodstock’ movie, he had just passed, and this was a chance to see him on film. There was confusion. It was well intentioned, but there was no form to it. It was this completely nutty event at which he played really wonderfully, in a different way than what you’ve seen of him at ‘Woodstock.’ ”
To tell the story, the filmmakers traveled to Maui to conduct a few interviews. “We went back to Seabury Hall and took Billy Cox, the surviving member of the (Hendrix) Experience, and we walked the area where the show was done,” said McDermott. “And we spoke with Linda Lindsay from Seabury Hall and people who were in the film like Les Potts and Steve Sutherland who still live on the island.”
“Jimi’s sister (Janie Hendrix) was over here at my house about a couple of years ago putting a film together,” Potts reported. “They filmed me in my studio for about an hour and a half.”
Kula resident Linda Wilkes was among the lucky few hundred who attended the concert. Living on Olinda Road at the time, she would head to Seabury Hall with her boyfriend, artist William Ballantine III, known as Tabulator, who designed the titles for the film.
Jimi Hendrix performed a free concert in a Haleakala Ranch pasture on July 30, 1970, two months before he died. — Daniel Teheney/Authentic Hendrix LLC photo
“We walked down and heard some music and Jimi and the band were in a room,” she remembered. “They were just jamming. I’ll never forget it. That’s when I met him and the guys in the band.”
Wilkes is glimpsed dancing in the “Rainbow Bridge” movie while Hendrix is playing “Hear My Train A Comin’.” She said the concert was an extraordinary experience.
In an interview with the Italian Hendrix tribute magazine UniVibes, the late Maui musician Rodney “Rocket” Ramos recalled: “The first song was ‘Spanish Castle Magic,’ and everybody just dropped dead. I mean it was hard to believe. I sat there just awed, and I was only about 15 feet away from him. Everybody went totally out of their minds.”
With a strong wind blowing, the rock concert echoed around Upcountry. The Maui News on Aug. 1, 1970, announced: “Camelot Comes to Haleakala.” The scene “looked as though preparations were underway for a jousting tournament in King Arthur’s day. . . and the colorful zodiacal banners lent an air of festivity. More than 800 of the long-haired set walked about a mile up the mountain slope to enjoy the music of Jimi Hendrix. One witness to the scene when asked about the loudness of the music said that ‘actually it sounded a bit better from about a mile away.’ All in all it made for an enjoyable afternoon for almost everyone except a few who complained about the ‘noise’ from the batteries of loudspeakers amplifying the Hendrix sound.”
McDermott said because there were 40 mph winds blowing that day, “Mitch Mitchell had to rerecord his drum parts back at Electric Lady Studios in 1971, so the footage would have usable drums.”
In new concert clips from the documentary released so far, Hendrix looks happy and his playing is sensational. Two weeks before performing for a few hundred blissed-out-looking fans on Maui, he had played to an audience of more than 200,000 at the Atlanta International Pop Festival. And a month later he played before 600,000 at the Isle of Wight Festival in the U.K.
While filming was going on, Hendrix and the crew stayed at Seabury Hall. For Realtor Hugh Starr, the project was an opportunity to work as an assistant cook at the school.
“I was asked to help, and I worked in the kitchen,” he said. “I remember Jimi sitting in a room at Cooper House, and he was playing his guitar all by himself. There was a scene they filmed at the reflection pool at Cooper House, and my wife and I were extras in that. Jimi played up on the balcony for that scene, and we were all meditating around the pool.”
Starr would bake bread daily for everyone, even grinding the grains.
“One day someone came back to the kitchen and said, ‘Jimi wanted to let you know that the toast he just had was incredible.’ He was the only person to have the presence of mind to be grateful for the food,” he said.
Rainbow Bridge’s artistic director Melinda Merryweather, who is interviewed in the new doc, recalled Hendrix loved being on Maui. One can imagine him strolling around Seabury Hall’s idyllic grounds, gazing over the valley and falling in love with our island.
“Jimi loved making the movie,” she said. “He loved Maui.”
Married at the time to surfer Mike Henson of “The Endless Summer” fame, she helped persuade Hendrix’s manager, Michael Jeffery, to embrace the Rainbow Bridge project.
“I was the person who took the project to Michael Jeffery,” she explained. “We were on Maui making a surfing movie that had to do with cosmic consciousness and vegetarianism. We had the best surfers and we thought we should have the best musicians, so how do we get Jimi?
“Somebody said Michael Jeffery was at the Pioneer Inn, and I met him and said, “we’re making this surfing movie, what do you think?” We became great friends and Michael wanted to be involved. Somehow, I ended up being one of the stars of the film, which was not my intention.”
During her time with Hendrix, which included hiking in Haleakala, he told Merryweather that he wanted to move to Maui. Before leaving the island, he wrote and recorded the song “Scorpio Woman” for her.
So how did this motley crew of hippies and filmmakers get to rent Seabury Hall?
“Ken Melrose tells a great story in the film how two guys in suits from Warner Bros. came and rented the school,” McDermott explained. “When the film crew showed up and all (director) Chuck Wein’s folks, they were horrified. Even the Warner Bros. crew left every night because they were afraid they were going to get dosed with psychedelic drugs. As Ken says in the film, ‘My dad (Headmaster Roger Melrose) didn’t give them the security deposit back.’ ”
Reflecting on the historic importance of Hendrix’s concert/film, McDermott emphasized: “It was the first time that a movie was financed just on the fact that an artist like Jimi would do the soundtrack. It’s amazing how sleepy Maui was in 1970. The idea of a rock concert on Maui was such an enormous deal.”
During his short life, Hendrix only released three albums before he died at the age of 27. The new documentary and recordings, to be released Nov. 20, will add to his legacy. The Blu-ray Disc will include the documentary as well as bonus material featuring all of the existing 16mm color film shot of the two performances on July 30, 1970. “Live In Maui” will be released as two CDs or three vinyl LPs.
“Our job is to serve Jimi and his legacy,” McDermott noted. “We’re 50 years away from the Maui event, and it’s so important to understand what this is. Seven weeks later he was dead. Jimi only really had four years in the public eye releasing this amazing body of work. He sadly died in London in September.”
* Jon Woodhouse can be reached at jonwoodh@gmail.com.
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