Jimi
Hendrix
(Born James Hendrix, aka Jimmy Jones) November 27, 1942 - September
18, 1970 Birthplace: Seattle, Washington
Although Jimi Hendrix will be remembered as rock's most innovative
and revolutionary guitarist, he had the natural instincts of a bluesman
and in fact built much of his early repertoire from the blues. Live, Hendrix
played plenty of blues his sets were almost always filled with long, extended
jams based on blues chord progressions heard in such gems as "Red House"
and "California Night."
Some of what Hendrix did with feedback, fuzz tones, distortion, and
volume elaborated on the styles of blues guitarists Pat
Hare and Guitar Slim. With his screeching solos, Hendrix shattered
rock and blues traditions regarding how long and in what capacity solos
should be delivered. He broke down barriers between blues and rock so that
his guitar ideas flowed freely from one idiom to the other. His influence
can be heard in the guitar styles of bluesmen Magic
Sam, Buddy Guy,
and, later on, Stevie
Ray Vaughan.
Hendrix's earliest influences came from Muddy
Waters, B.B. King,
Guitar Slim, and Chuck
Berry. After a stint in the army from 1959 to 1961, Hendrix, working
under the name Jimmy James, became a respected sideman, playing behind
such soul and R&B artists as Little Richard, King Curtis, and the Isley
Brothers. In 1964 Hendrix moved to New York City and formed his own band,
Jimmy James and Blue Flames, which mostly played Jimmy
Reed, Memphis
Slim, Muddy Waters, and Robert
Johnson covers. Barely surviving in the Greenwich Village folk and
blues scene, Hendrix nonetheless became a regular at the Cafe Wha? For
a brief spell, he played with blues guitarist and singer John Hammond,
Jr. before he was approached by Chas Chandler, the former bass player of
the English blues-rock group the Animals. Chandler invited Hendrix to go
to London and start a new group, which Chandler would manage. Hendrix took
the offer, moved to London in 1966, and formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience
with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bass player Noel Redding.
The Experience's debut album, Are You Experienced?, contained
a number of Hendrix classics, including "Purple Haze," "Manic Depression,"
and "Foxy Lady." On this album, Hendrix introduced to the rock world his
awesome guitar prowess and proceeded to redefine the standards by which
all other rock guitarists would subsequently be judged. Hendrix's legendary
performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, at which he burned his
guitar in an orgiastic climax, only increased the hoopla surrounding him
and his band.
Are You Experienced? was a startling work that still ranks as
one of the greatest debut albums in rock history. On his two 1968 releases,
Axis:
Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland, Hendrix continued his probe
into psychedelia and the sonic stratosphere, yet still managed to keep
his relationship with the blues solid.
In 1969 Hendrix dissolved the Experience. After playing the Woodstock
festival, Hendrix formed the Band of Gypsys with old army chum and bass
player Billy Cox and former Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles. Hendrix
had built own recording studio, Electric Ladyland, in Greenwich Village
and recorded regularly in 1970. Going off in a jazz direction, Hendrix
played with guitarists John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell and planned to
record with trumpet player Miles Davis.
After a performance at the Isle of Wight rock festival in late summer
of 1970, Hendrix went to London. There on September 18 he died in his sleep,
choking on vomit after ingesting a heavy dose of barbiturates. He was twenty-seven
years Hendrix was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
   
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