Martha Velez Jimi Hendrix Woodstock Interview: My Brother Gerardo Velez On Stage with Jimi Hendrix – Did I Really Reject Jimi? Yikes!
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Martha Velez was asked to sing with Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock and inadvertently rejected Jimi Hendrix’s offer to sing at this great event. Not her best career move but her brother Gerado “Jerry” Velez (pictured above on the black and red congos) played in Jimi Hendrix’s band at Woodstock. This exclusive interview with Martha Velez is all about meeting Jimi Hendrix and her brother Gerardo Velez playing with Jimi Hendrix at the Woodstock Festival. All the text in this article is (c) by M.Velez and the Gifts and Free Advice Blog (P.Hersh). Feel free to use up to 200 words for any summary in a blog, newspaper article or magazine, as long as this link for the URL of the complete Blog Post is provided:
www.giftsandfreeadvice.com/free_advice/martha-velez-jimi-hendrix-woodstock-my-brother-in-jimi-hendrix-band-and-i-rejected-jimi This interview was written as a narrative rather than a formal question and answer piece, from Martha Velez’s own words. Any commercial publication wishing to republish the complete article should contact this Blog via the comments section (It will not be shown in the Blog). You can buy “Fiends and Angels” as well as many of Martha Velez’s other albums on sale at www.GiftsandFreeAdvice.com Just put the name Martha Velez in the Search Space. This huge online store with thousands of great Discount Gifts as well as our Discount E-Commerce Stores below help support this blog so please check them out. Lastly Click here to read Martha Velez interview about recording with Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Paul Kossoff, Christine McVie and other British Blues greats on her classic blues album Fiends and Angels.
Meeting Jimi Hendrix for the First Time and In The Greatest Career Move Since Ringo Starr Joined the Beatles Rejecting Jimi Hendrix Request to Sing with him at Woodstock
When I came back from London after recording “Fiends and Angels” with Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Paul Kossoff of Free and Mitch Mitchell of The Jimi Hendrix Experience(For my complete exclusive story of Recording Fiends and Angels with Eric Clapton and the above on this Blog please click here), I moved up to Woodstock to start my band. The town, pre-Woodstock Festival – was filled with musicians because, Albert Grossman, who managed Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin etc., lived there. So, the energy up there, since it had always been an Artist’s community, was filled with creativity. It was the place to woodshed your music.
Jimi Hendrix had rented a house near Woodstock for the summer where he housed his musicians and rode horses. Anyway, I’d just returned from London, Jimi and his band were in a town just outside of Woodstock where Jimi could have a lot of acreage – a big ole country house. The instruments were set in the living /dining area which was a wide open space and the drum kit could be permanently set up there as well. My brother had invited me to come and hang out – I guess it was sometime in July of 69, and I went to hang out. There was a lot of laughing, talking and I was always the lone girl music maker. On this day, there was only Jimi, my brother Gerardo and Mitch Mitchell. Mitch was at the drum kit, just playing some light grooves. My brother was playing some very light percussion, and Jimi was sitting at the head of this very long rough hewed oak dining room table. It could sit about 20 people. I was sitting to his right…he was dealing with some substances that will remain nameless. I just watched him do his thing for a while, not sure of what to say. His course of action at that moment was not really my thing, so I just politely observed. He was a very calm person– very soulful and genuine as he sat there. He was a beautiful young man, who sat in full regalia even on a quiet country afternoon – a visual contradiction to the wooded/country/earthy environment which surrounded him. He had a glittery wide bandana on his head. His shirt was white, light and loose with some kind of gold tassels hanging from the end of the sleeve that made it hard for him to service the focus of that moment. He kept pulling the sleeves up, they kept dipping back into his stuff. He had a sweet, gentle laugh about it. I stifled what might have turned into a big guffaw. It was funny. Big rock star with tassels whisking between him and his cravings. Yet, his nature, his inherent spirit was of a very gentle soul. He laughed, finally mastering the necessary move. Frankly, I didn’t know what to talk about in that moment, but, Mitch who was always much more verbose and energetic, piped up with “You know I just worked with Eric and Jack on Martha’s album…It’s really cool.” .. Some words to that affect. Jimi responded with, “I know. I heard it.” That took me aback, because I was not sure what his opinion would be…and it mattered to me. Someone in the room played some music.I don’t remember the name of, but, it might have been “A Love Supreme” by Coltrane, because in those days, musicians played the artists who were in the stratospheres and not just their contemporaries. After a while, Jimi turned to me, out of the blue and asked if I wanted to play at this festival that was coming up in August- Woodstock….I said, “Oh no that’s O.K.”
I wish I could have photographed the look of contained amazement on his face…It wasn’t that I was rejecting his offer, it was that I was too insecure to take it up. For me he was in the stratosphere.
My Brother and Jimi Hendrix
My brother Gerado was a ball of fire in those days and he still is. He was always up and happy and ready to play. Percussion instruments, at that point in his life, were relatively new to him, but he was a fearless dude and played at a drop of a hat. He met Jimi Hendrix by going to a club in New York called Steve Paul’s Scene. Jimi would go there to work out new tunes and sounds without a large audience. It was really a dark small club. Gerardo would ask if he could sit in and just play away. Sometimes he would just set up his congas at the edge of the low stage and simply begin to play – to positive response by whomever was on the stage. I think he may have done that with Jim Morrison of the Doors as well. Playing with Jimi, he connected and ended up playing in Woodstock. His version of this historical point may vary, however, it is just by degrees. Click Here for Gerardo Velez Web Site
August 14, 15, 16, 1969 – Woodstock Festival – Backstage
I was at Woodstock with Keith Johnson, trumpet player for the Butterfield Blues Band at the time, later my ex-husband and father of my son, Taj Johnson. We were flown in by helicopter with the band. The sight from up in the air was beyond belief. It was locusts of humans hovering tightly together, the music was blaring so loudly through the fields, we could hear the rumblings of the bass woofers from the humongous Marshall speakers over the helicopter propellers as we landed. The Butterfield Blues Band was performing, so we got to hang out in the performers tent. The whole thing was like a miracle of joyous madness. People, swarms of people, were just outside the tent. The tent was to the side of the bandstand, so that when you stood in the wings it looked out, it looked like heads, bodies, arms, feet, torsos all entangled with one another, one massive body of humanity, spirited, in love with each other, for that moment in time–Aquarius.
There were tons of musicians in the tent. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Country Joe and the Fish, Butterfield Band…it was in that moment that I realized I had blown that moment in history. I should have accepted Jimi’s invitation to come and sing with him. The massive crowd was so embracing, it would have been such a monumental moment for me. It may be the biggest regret of my life, but hey..I was at the 20th Woodstock Anniversary reunion – the 40th might be too filled with ghosts.
Jimi was to go on at 9pm on Saturday night. He did not perform until 10 am Sunday morning. Everyone was spent. There was no place to sleep and no way to get out before performing. So we all just partied all night, enjoying every performer that got up on stage. The rains were cleansing and the mud was a warm blanket to the crowds. We were fortunate under the tent. We could see that the potential for the spectacle to become a disaster was possible, but the spirit was indomitably kind.
Jimi Hendrix With Gerardo Velez Plays Woodstock!
Finally, when Jimi got up to perform, he, his band and the audience had gotten a second wind. All of us who were back stage were re-enlivened when Jimi began to play. I had this phenomenal view from the wings, right in front of the lip of the stage, stage right, where Jimi played, the Star Spangled Banner. It was genius, fortitude, deliverance, magic, transcendental. Of course, I had bruises on my leg from kicking myself for not having participated. Still, I got a front row seat to the exquisite!
This was Gerardo’s first professional gig as a percussionist and it was with Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. If you see videos of the day, he was exhausted and exhilarated. When they came off the stage, the crowd was wild, Jimi looked like a man who had stared God in the face and had been transformed. He was very quiet, they way one is when they have just genuflected in church. Everyone stood several feet away, absorbing the majesty.
When my brother played at Woodstock, I was beyond proud. It was like a phenomenon. He couldn’t believe it and had permanent glee whipped on his face. I too, was smiling, a wrap around smile…we were on parallel paths, but he always was more eager to jump into the pool — I always needed to know that there was at least some water in it. Thankfully, one of the Velez’s performed at Woodstock and one got to take it all in. There was no doubt that this colossal event was a pivotal time in history. There was no doubt that something life altering had occurred that day for everyone involved. Of course, my very middle class parents were not impressed. I was supposed to be singing Opera and my brother was supposed to be finishing college. Regardless of that, my parents were the most supportive, loving, kind people you would ever want to meet. They didn’t fully understand our path, but they were always there to catch and love us on the journey. Ultimately, they both got to see us perform in our separate milieus. Dad feel asleep during a Spyro Gyra concert, and my Mom told me I should sing sweeter songs like when I was with the Gaslight Singers. Both parents are gone now.They died at ripe old ages. Dad at 85. Mom at 91. Dad laughed till his final breath. Mom danced till hers. What I wouldn’t give today to sing an aria for my parents with my brother playing gentle percussion sounds while our parents laughed and danced. They were beautifully married for 54 years. They were music.
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