Jimi Hendrix (1942 - 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter who, in a mainstream career lasting barely four years, transformed the electric guitar's role in popular music. [1] Leading the Jimi Hendrix Experience, he released three studio albums between 1967 and 1968 and gave landmark performances at the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock. [2] He died in London in September 1970 at the age of 27.
Early life
Johnny Allen Hendrix was born in Seattle on 27 November 1942 and was later renamed James Marshall Hendrix by his father. His childhood was marked by poverty and family instability, and he acquired his first guitar as a teenager, teaching himself to play by ear and left-handed on a restrung right-handed instrument. He attended Garfield High School but left before graduating. [1]
In 1961 he enlisted in the United States Army and was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he met bassist Billy Cox. He was discharged the following year and began working as a backing musician on the rhythm and blues circuit, touring with performers including the Isley Brothers and Little Richard.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Playing in Greenwich Village in 1966 under the name Jimmy James, he was seen by Chas Chandler, formerly of the Animals, who brought him to London and became his manager. There the Jimi Hendrix Experience was formed with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, and the trio's first singles, "Hey Joe" and "Purple Haze", entered the British charts in early 1967. [2]
The debut album Are You Experienced (1967) was followed within months by Axis: Bold as Love and, in 1968, by the double album Electric Ladyland, which reached number one in the United States and included an extended reworking of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower". Hendrix treated the recording studio as an instrument, using feedback, controlled distortion, wah-wah, stereo panning and tape manipulation as compositional tools rather than effects. [3]
Monterey, Woodstock and Band of Gypsys
His American breakthrough came at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967, where he closed his set by setting fire to his guitar. In August 1969 he headlined the Woodstock festival, performing at dawn on the final morning with an expanded group; his instrumental rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner", full of dive-bombs and feedback, became one of the most discussed performances of the era. [1]
After the Experience dissolved, Hendrix formed Band of Gypsys with Billy Cox and drummer Buddy Miles, whose live album recorded at the Fillmore East was released in 1970. He also invested in the construction of Electric Lady Studios in New York, which opened shortly before his death.
Death and legacy
Hendrix died in Kensington, London, on 18 September 1970; an inquest recorded an open verdict, with asphyxia following barbiturate intoxication given as the medical cause. He left a large archive of unfinished recordings, which has supplied a long sequence of posthumous releases. [1]
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. [3] Critics and musicians have consistently placed him at or near the top of assessments of rock guitar playing, and his combination of blues phrasing, sonic experiment and songwriting continues to shape rock, funk and metal.
