Jimi Hendrix - Gabor Szabo - 1967

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This poster, for the “Opening of the Fillmore Summer Series,” is historically significant as it featured the Jimi Hendrix Experience as an opening act. This was also the first Fillmore appearance by Jimi Hendrix. These shows were just days after Jimi's appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival, where he set his guitar on fire and blew away the audience.  

When this show was booked by Bill Graham, Hendrix was a relatively new name that few had heard of, and so he was billed third, opening for Gabor Szabo and the big kids on the block in San Francisco, the Jefferson Airplane. After one night or possibly two, the Airplane noticed they were playing their second set to a half-empty hall - everyone had been there to see Jimi Hendrix! Both Szabo and the Airplane asked if instead he would play last and they would open for HIM. Jimi Hendrix never opened for anyone again and it’s important to note that the Beatles had stopped touring in August 1966 and with the possible exception of the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix was The Most Important Rock Star of the late 1960s era and until his death in September, 1970.

Gábor Szabó was a jazz guitarist, who was born in Budapest, Hungary. When he was 20, he moved to California and he later attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 1961, Szabo became a member of a quintet including Charles Lloyd, playing what has been described as chamber jazz, Szabo was influenced by the rock music of the 1960s, particularly the use of feedback. The song "Gypsy Queen" from Szabo's debut solo album, Spellbinder (1966), became a hit for Carlos Santana.