‘Jimi Plays Monterey’ and ‘Shake’ (NR)

When guitarist Jimi Hendrix was booked for the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967, he was virtually unknown in his homeland. He'd gone to England a few years before, finding a more receptive climate there for his guitar experimentation. Hendrix played his right-handed Stratocaster left-handed, the strings strung in reverse, so it's little wonder that with a little feedback and distortion, he was able to turn his (and then everyone's) concept of electric guitar inside out. At Monterey, he also played his guitar behind his back and behind his neck; eventually, he set fire to it and smashed it to pieces when it wouldn't burn. The song: "Wild Thing." Little wonder the audience that night was stunned -- Jimi Hendrix was an Experience.

The kinetic energy and visceral impact of this seminal performance, captured in full in "Jimi Plays Monterey," should turn the heads of even those who think Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen are guitar gods. Some of the footage appeared in D.A. Pennebaker's "Monterey Pop," but this film includes Hendrix's complete set from the festival, from the killing pace of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" and a few originals ("Foxy Lady," "Purple Haze" and "The Wind Cries Mary") to the climactic "Wild Thing." There are also definitive covers of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" and B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby."

Hendrix, bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell are a psychedelic sight in their gypsy day-glo fashion, but after a while all you see is all you hear -- music breaking into a new dimension. The 55-minute film, also directed by Pennebaker, includes some rare footage of Hendrix playing in London, a short historical narrative by Papa John Phillips (a coproducer of the festival) and an intriguing opening in which a painter splashes a back-alley wall to no apparent purpose until a graffiti-portrait of Hendrix gradually emerges over his "Can You See Me." In an earlier London scene, the cocky Hendrix tells the audience, "Watch out for your ears, okay?" He could have added, "Watch out for your minds."

Also on the bill is "Shake," a 20-minute film capturing Otis Redding's equally historic Monterey set, just three months before he was killed in an airplane crash. A classic Southern soul man, Redding was just as comfortable with the rough-hewn exuberance of "Respect" and the title song as with the aching surrender of "I've Been Loving You Too Long" and "Try a Little Tenderness" (which actually moves from a sweet entrance to a sweaty exit). Backed by Booker T. and the MGs and the Mar-Keys, Redding is all gritty energy and slow-burn fire, and this film is a fine reminder of his contributions to the pop world. Although both films are mostly performance footage (the background light shows may have to be explained to younger fans), Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus and David Dawkins also give a little of the overall Monterey Pop flavor in a genial montage of women's faces during "Try a Little Tenderness." You won't see faces like those at the Monsters of Rock concerts.