Maine. I usually come off as a total dick on message boards, and I promise I’m not trying to be a hater… That said, seeing as the term “blues” is a bit subjective in that it may describe either a general style of music (say the 12-bar blues), or a particular mood (such as the phrase “I’ve got the blues.”
Seeing as the latter is totally subjective, I or no one else has the right to tell you what is or what is not bluesy. (Muddy Waters & Bo Diddley wrote quite a few single chord songs that are traditionally considered blues… ‘I’m a Man’ for example.) In hind sight I should have said "I've always heard this song as jazz, even though you hear it as blues."
That said, by Hendrix’ own admission the only blues song he ever wrote (not performed) was ‘Red-House.’ Even if Little Wing contained a blues progression, or rhythmically was a blues shuffle (neither or which it does), the SRV performance/interpretation you posted is still by definition ‘Jazz.’ There are countless standards that are both blues and jazz (Charlie Parkers ‘Blues for Alice’, Miles Davis ‘All Blues’, etc.) So it could be both, but it this case it’s not.
By definition the standard 12-bar blues progression is:
| I | IV | I | I |
|IV | IV | I | I |
| V | IV | I | IV|
The last two chords being the turn around. The chords traditionally dom-7th chords, and the rhythm is typically a blues shuffle. I’ve seen many variants (1-bar, 8-bar, even a 6-bar), but you get the point. Also, Little Wing contains no dom-7th chords... While 'Red-House' is all dom-7th.
Little Wing is:
| Em | G | Am | Em | Bm |
| Am/C |Gsus9 \ Fsus9 | C | D | -- |
Which would be written
| i | III | iv | i | v |
| v/VI | III-sus9 | C | D | drum-break |
This is definitely not a blues by any litmus. The last 4 measures (not 2 as typically in blues) would loosely be considered the turn around, however all Jazz song's have this same feature as some kind of turn-around is necessary to bring the song back to the fist measure.
Furthermore, near the end of Hendrix’ life (when he was consulting with Miles Davis) he performed Little Wing utilizing Jazz methods. Most Jazz since the Bebop era is based the classical sonata allegro… From Marc Sabetella’s ‘Jazz Theory’:
“an optional introduction, the exposition or theme (possibly repeated), the development section, and the recapitulation, possibly followed by a coda. The introduction, if present, sets the tone for the piece; the exposition is the main melody; the development section is where the composer extends the ideas of the exposition; the recapitulation is a restatement of the theme; and the coda is an ending. In jazz terms, these sections of a piece would be called the intro, the head (possibly repeated), the solo section, the head out, and possibly a coda or tag ending.”
The Head: In the case of ‘Little Wing’, Stevie Ray plays the head (almost note for note) identically to Hendrix’ live versions (See Jimi-Hendrix – Last Experience Concert. For whatever reason it’s miss-titled as ‘Little Ivey’.)
http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1244268/a/Last+Experience+Concert:+His+Final+Performance.htm
The Solo: Hendrix used a modified bebop method in which he improvised using corresponding pentatonic maj/minor scales over each progression, while SRV never strays from Em-pentatonic (which is the only technical characteristic similar to a blues method… SRV did not have the chops to solo bebop style, and he openly admitted it.)
The Head Out: Both Hendrix and SRV play this identically.
So ya'... By the original composer, and my opinion It’s definitely jazz. By yours it's blues.