The Power of 3 builds new single ‘Taxi’ around an unheard Jimi Hendrix riff

The Power of 3—Orianthi, drummer Cindy Blackman Santana and bassist Rhonda Smith—has released “Taxi,” a new single built around a previously unheard Jimi Hendrix guitar riff. The track arrived on October 29 and previews the trio's self-titled debut album, due December 11 through She2Music.

Through access to the Hendrix archive, Orianthi and producer Eddie Kramer encountered the unreleased fragment. Orianthi recreated the riff, then the trio wrote a new song around it rather than issuing the archival recording itself. That distinction matters: “Taxi” uses Hendrix's musical idea as the starting point for a contemporary composition, with the band supplying the finished arrangement and performance.

The album was produced by Kramer and recorded entirely in analog. It follows the group's opening double single, “War In The Streets” and “Treat Me Like A Lady,” and will include a guest appearance from Carlos Santana. The lineup brings together three players whose credits span artists including Michael Jackson, Prince, Jeff Beck, Alice Cooper, Beyoncé and Santana.

The result places the Hendrix connection inside an active new band rather than treating it as a vault curiosity. For guitar listeners, the draw is hearing how a short historical fragment can be recast by a modern power trio while retaining the physical, live-band character suggested by the album's analog production.