The Supergroup That Almost Was: Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Miles Davis

Just read the names in that headline and dream.

It has been widely known that Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix had a recording session planned before Hendrix’s death in 1970, but the Associated Press reports that those two also asked Paul McCartney to come sit in on the recordings on bass.

The request came via a telegraph sent to the Beatles’ Apple headquarters in London in late 1969.

“We are recording and LP together this weekend in NewYork” read the message – errors in tact. “How about coming in to play bass stop call Alvan Douglas 212-5812212. Peace Jimi Hendrix Miles Davis Tony Williams.”

Tony Williams is a legendary jazz drummer.

The thing that makes it so regretful this didn’t happen is not just that three of the best-known musicians of the 1960s didn’t get together in a recording studio, but rather that the musical possibilities will forever be unheard. Obviously Davis and Hendrix were two of the best at their respective instruments, but McCartney is often very underrated as a bass player.  With groupings like this, you never know how the actual chemistry would have worked out had they gotten into the studio, but it was never to be.

The AP reports that it is not clear if McCartney was made aware of the message, but that Apple worker Peter Brown replied and said McCartney was on vacation and wouldn’t be back for two weeks. Strangely, the telegraph was sent on the same day that a New York City radio station reported the now legendary rumor that McCartney had died in a car crash and had been replaced by a look-a-like. Not to mention that by the time the telegram was sent, tensions were often high among the Beatles, which would break up the following year.

The telegram has been part of the Hard Rock Café collection since 1995, but has been publicized recently with the March release of People, Hell and Angels, a collection of 12 previously unheard songs by Hendrix.