The Doors were a few months away from stardom in March 1967 when they played five sparsely attended shows at a small club in San Francisco called The Matrix. These uninhibited performances would have been fleeting if not for Peter Abram, who co-owned the pizza parlor-turned-nightclub with Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin. An avid recordist, Abram taped concerts at The Matrix regularly and his recordings of The Doors, made between March 7-11, 1967, spawned one of the band’s most storied bootlegs. At long last, all known Matrix recordings, sourced entirely from Abram’s original master recordings, will be released on September 8.
LIVE AT THE MATRIX 1967: THE ORIGINAL MASTERS will be available on September 8 as a 5-LP set. Production of the vinyl version is limited to 14,000 numbered copies worldwide. The band’s March 7 performance of the jazz instrumental “Bag’s Groove” is exclusive to the vinyl set and comes on a 7” single. “Bag’s Groove” is one of two never-before-heard recordings.
