The Colour Purple

An album by Paris based Vietnamese jazz guitarist Nguyen Le celebrating Jimi Hendrix, entitled Purple. The style is very much jazz rock, sort of Weather Report meets Hendrix. Le's guitar playing is suitably virtuosic and only occasionally veers more towards Ernie Isley than the sainted Jimi. The female drummer Terri Lynne Carrington handles some vocal duties and there are also occasional solo contributions on piano that enhance the jazzy feel. A smattering of world music percussion and samples too, particularly effective when taking Voodoo Child back to Africa. Otherwise, the tracks that work best are Hendrix's more left field compositions such as Third Stone From The Sun, A Merman I Should Be and Are You Experienced, rather than the more straight ahead Manic Depression and Purple Haze.