Bloggfærslur mánaðarins, september 2012

6.9.2012 | 09:20

Who was Jimi Hendrix?

Introduction

Jimi Hendrix, born Johnny Allen Hendrix at 10:15 a.m. on November 27, 1942, at Seattle's King County Hospital, was later renamed James Marshall by his father, James ''Al'' Hendrix. Young Jimmy, as he was referred to at the time, took an interest in music, drawing influence from virtually every major artist at the time, including B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Holly and Robert Johnson. He is widely considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in music history and one of the most influential musicians of his era, and his musical language continues to influence a host of modern musicisans, from George Clinton to Miles Davis, and Steve Vai to Johnny Lang.

His Career and life

Hendrix was not very popular in the U.S.A. at the outset of his musical career, only later gaining recognition after taking a trip to England in 1966 with The Animals’ Chas Chandler, where he subsequently formed The Jimi Hendrix Experience with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. While The Experience quickly became popular in England, they remained relatively unrecognised outside the country. It was not until their 1967 performance at the Monterey International Pop Festival in the States that The Experience became, quite literally overnight, one of the most popular bands of the era.

Career ( 1965-1966)

The October 15, Jimi signed a three- year recording contract with entrepreneur Ed Chalpin, receiving US$1 and 1 royalty on records with Curtis Knight. By 1996 he had his own band, Jimmy James and The Blues Flames, and a residency at the Cafe Wah? in New York City. While performing with the Blue Flames at the Cafe Wah? that Hendrix was discovered by Chas Chandler,bassist of the famous British rock group The Animals. Chandler brought him to England, signed Hendrix to a management and production contract as his record producer, and helped Hendrix form a new band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. Within his first shows in London club appearances, word of the new star spread out like wildfire throughout British music industry. Managers at The Beatles and The Who immediately signed Hendrix to The Who's record label, Track Records. The cover of Hey Joe was borne out in their first single, a stylisedblues song that was virtually a standard for rock bands at the time. And the next hit was the song Purple Haze, whose heavily distorted guitar sound would be highly influential for next 20 years, and the soulful ballad The Wind Cries Mar. These three songs were all top 10 hits.

Career (1967-1968)

1967 saw the release of the group's first album, Are You Experienced?, with the ballads The Wind Cries Mary, the pop rock song, Fire, and Third Stone From the Sun, and blues, Red House, would prove the template for much of their later work. Hendrix was taken to hospital suffering burns to his hands after setting his guitar on fire for the first time at the Astoria theatre in London on March 31, 1967. Hendrix's wild-man image and musical gimmickry (such as playing the guitar with his teeth and behind his back) continued to bring him publicity, although he was to become more and more frustrated by media and audience concentration on his stage act and his early hits, and his increasing difficulty in getting his newer music accepted.

In 1967 also saw the release of his second album, Axis Bold as Love, continued the style established by Are Your Experienced, with tracks such as Little Wing and If 6 Was 9, showing his continuing mastery of his instrument. By this time, increasing personality differnced with Noel Redding combined with the influence of drugs, alcohol and fatique, led to a trouble-plagued tour of Scandinavia. On January 4, 1968, Hendrix was jailed by Stockholm police, after trashing a hotel room in a drunken rage.

The Band's third recording,the double album Electric Ladyland 1968,was more eclectic and experimental,featuring a lenghty jam (Voodoo Chile), the jazz-inflected Rainy Day, Dream Away/Still Raining, Still Dreaming. The recording of the album was extremely problematic.

Hendrix had by now decided to return to America and, frustrated by the limitations of commercial recording, he decided to establish his own state of the art multitrack studio in New York, to which he could have unlimited access to realide his expanding musical visions. Construction of the studio, called Electric Lady, was beset with problems and it was not completed until mid 1970. Despite the difficulties of its recording, many if the albums tracks show Hendrix's vision expanding far beyond the scope of the original trio and saw him collaborating with range of outside musicians including Dave Mason, Chris Wood and Steve Winwood from Traffic, drummer Buddy Miles and the former Dylan organist Al Kooper.

Career (1969-1970)

His expanding musical horizons were accompanied by a deterioration in his relationship with his bandmates ,particularly Reddingm and the Experience broke up during 1969. His relations with the public also came to a head when on January 4, 1969 he was accused by television producers of arrogance after playing an impromptu version of Sunshine of your Love past his allotted time slot on the BBC1 show Happening for Lulu.

On May 3 he was arrested at Toronto International Airport after herion was found in his luggage. He was later bailed on a US$10,000 surety; when the matter came to trial Hendrix was acquitted, claiming that the drugs had been slipped into his bag by a fan without his knowledge. On June 29, Noel Redding announced to the media that he had quit the Experience, although he had effectively ceased working with Hendrix during most of the recording of Electric Ladyland.

By August of 1969, however, Hendrix had formed a new band, called Gypsy Suns and Rainbows, to play the Woodstock Festival. It featured Hendrix on guitar, Billy Cox on bass, Mitch Mitchell on drums, Larry Lee on rhythm guitar and Jerry Velez and Juma Sultan on drums and percussion. The set, while notably under-rehearsed and ragged in performance, Hendrix was reputedly 'spiked' with a powerful dose of LSD just before going onstage, and played out to a slowly emptying field of revelers, featured an extraordinary instrumental version of The Star-Spangled Banner.

The Gypsy Suns and Rainbows were short-lived, and Hendrix formed a new trio, the Band of Gypsys, comprising Billy Cox, an old army buddy, on bass and Buddy Miles on drums, for four memorable concerts on New Year's Eve 1969-70. The concerts were recorded, capturing several superb pieces, including what some feel to be one of Hendrix's greatest live performances, an explosive 12-minute rendition of his anti-war epic Machine Gun.

Band of Gypsys

The US 1970 'Cry of Love' tour began on the 25th April 1970 at the Los Angeles Forum to a capacity of about 20,000 people.This was truly a dynamite rock concert and is in the top five live shows Hendrix ever played, with the first live versions of 'Hey Baby.

July 1970 saw a few notable shows. The first was at Atlanta, 4 July, where the largest crowds in Hendrix' career battled heat and dehydration. At 400,000 people, Atlanta pop festival is truly outstanding in terms of audience and the vibe in the air is dense and muggy. In August he gave his last performance in the United Kingdom, at the Isle of Wight Festival with Mitchell and Cox, expressing disappointment on-stage at his fans' clamour to hear his old hits rather than his new ideas. On September 6, during his final European tour, Hendrix was greeted by booing and jeering by fans while performing at the Fehmarn Festival in Germany in a riot-like atmosphere (officially his final stage performance). Bassist Billy Cox quit the tour and headed back to the United States after reportedly being dosed with PCP.

Hendrix remained in England, and on September 17 he was found senseless in bed in the hotel room of a German girlfriend Monika Dannemann after taking a reported nine vesperax sleeping pills and choking on his own vomit. He died the next morning in St Mary Abbots Hospital, South Kensington. His body was returned home and he was interred in the Greenwood Memorial Park, Renton, Washington, USA.

Here is Jimi Hendrix with Mitchell and Cox in his last perfomance in the United Kingdom, at the Isle of Wight Festival

Interview

I interview my friend Valur, because he has the same interest in Jimi like I do. And we are also learning the movie and music history. I asked him some few questions like: How old were you when you started listen to Hendrix and he said that he grew up listening to legends such as Hendrix, but he started listening to Hendrix when he was 14 years old. His favorite song from Hendrix is Purple Haze and Voodoo Chile and his favorite album is Are you Experienced witch was Hendrix first album with his band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience. I asked him what he thought about Jimi's drug abuse and he told me he wasn't a supporter of drugs, but Jimi him self often talked about drugs, especially LSD witch inspired him in his music making, so if drugs inspired him in making his magical songs, guitar riffs and solo's, then it doesn't bothers him at all. Valur couldn't find any flaws about Jimi so I asked him to rate him on scale 1-10 and of course it was a ten. Jimi Hendrix revolutionized the playing of the electric guitar. Hendrix got sounds of the guitar that nobody had ever heard and was a clear innovator. There's no wonder why he is ranked as the best guitarist of all time, added Valur to his last words.

Conclusion

Despite his hectic touring schedule and his notorious perfectionism, he was also a prolific recording artist and he left behind more than 300 unreleased recordings besides his five official LPs and various singles. He became legendary as one of the great 1960s rock'n'roll musicians who, like Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones, rose to stardom, flourished for just a few years and died young. The legacy and influence of Hendrix has not dimmed with time; he was named the number one guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. There's no doupt tha Hendrix is the greatest guitarist in the world and has affected the rock history trough the 1960' and such a traged that he had to die so young.