The early life and career of Jimi Hendrix
Johnny Allen Hendrix was born in
Jimmy persuaded his father to buy him his first guitar when he was 15. “I
put in plenty of gardening time with my dad to get that guitar,” he said “hours
of sweat, lifting, carrying, mowing, trimming, and taking orders.” [1]
Jimmy played this guitar for hours each day and
learned from copying guitarists like Chuck Berry. After almost a year Jimmy played
around the
Jimmy
failed to graduate from
Jimmy
received a medical discharge after breaking his ankle on his 26th
parachute jump. During his time in the 101st airborne division he
met fellow soldier and bass player Billy Cox. They became good friends and later
formed a band called the King Kasuals and played some of the local clubs. The
two eventually moved to
“Four
months later, with a few dollars saved, Jimmy summoned up his nerve to take on
Jimmy had many friends in
“A friend of a
friend introduced him to the Isley Brothers, and he joined their backup band”[3].After
playing with the Isley brother’s band for a while he eventually got a spot in
little Richards backing band, The Upsetters. Hendrix left the tour to tour with
other artists. He went back on tour with Little Richard but was soon fired for
missing a tour bus in
In 1965 Hendrix
joined the
In 66’ Hendrix
formed his own band, Jimmy James and
The Blue Flames, and became well known in the
Linda Keith, girlfriend of rolling stones
guitarist Keith Richards, noticed him and recommended him to the rolling
stone’s manager and a major record producer but they both declined. She then
recommended him to ex Animals bassist Chas Chandler, who was looking for new
talent to manage and produce.
The
bands final line up was competed on the 5th of October. After only
one week of playing together they played there first live show on the 13th
of October 1966 in Novelty,
After this performance
the band quickly went into the studio and recorded “Hey Joe” as their first
single. This peaked at number 6 in the
Their big chance to
break
After the success of the Monterey Pop festival the Jimi Hendrix Experience played a number of shows around the US and were still becoming bigger in the UK and the fans were waiting for his next album “Axis: Bold as Love”
“On December 1, the second Experience album, Axis:
Bold as Love, was released in the
Hendrix went on
to build his own studio called “Electric Lady Studios” in
“Electric Ladyland” was released in late 1968 and
was a huge departure from Hendrix’s previous albums. It included songs that
further highlighted Hendrix’s talent like “Voodoo Child (slight return)” and
his cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”. The band toured this album
playing shows all over the world. During this tour Bassist Noel Redding became
increasingly frustrated that he wasn’t able to play guitar, his favored
instrument. He set up a band called “Fat Mattress”; Fat Mattress would
sometimes open for the Hendrix experience.
Noel eventually decided to leave the band
to focus on Fat Mattress. Noel Redding played his last show with the Hendrix
Experience on June 29th 1969 at Barry Fey’s Denver Pop Festival. Soon after Noel left the band Jimi
recruited Billy Cox to play bass.
“Billy is a solid bass player…and he listens”[7]
Soon after adding Cox to the line up
Hendrix also added a rhythm guitarist, another friend from the Chitlin Circuit,
Larry Lee. He also added percussionists Jumo Sultan and Jerry Velez. Hendrix
called this band “Gypsy Sun and Rainbows” although it was never the official
name of the band.
This line up was set to headline the
When Hendrix and his new band came
on the stage they were announced as the Jimi Hendrix Experience but Hendrix
soon corrected this to Gypsy Sun and Rainbows. The new band played a 2 hours
set. Although there were many technical difficulties this was still said to be
one of Hendrix’s best performance. The set included an extended version of
“Voodoo Child (slight return)” and a controversial rendition of the “Star Spangled
Banner”.
Soon after the bands historic
performance at Woodstock Jimi cut the line up to a three piece again with Billy
Cox on bass and Buddy Miles on drums, this band was called the “Band of Gypsys”.
The band played four shows at Billy Graham’s Fillmore East in
After a few live performances with
the band of Gypsys, Jimi’s manager
Michael set up for Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding to rejoin the band and go on
a Hendrix experience re-union tour. Soon after Noel re-joined the band Jimi
fired him and brought back bassist Billy Cox, this line up is referred to as
the “Cry of Love Band”. This line up headlined the famous
On the 18th of September Jimi
Hendrix was found dead in the basement flat of the Samarkand Hotel
at
“Hendrix is recognized as one of the greatest and
most influential guitarists in rock music history.”[8]
He changed the way the electric guitar was played and influenced many guitarists. Hendrix was also one of the
first musicians to take full advantage of effects available in the studio at
the time making his music unique.
[1] From jimi Hendrix The man the magic
the truth – page 14
[2] From jimi Hendrix The man the magic
the truth – page 28
[3] From jimi Hendrix The man the magic
the truth – page 29
[4] From jimi Hendrix The man the magic
the truth – page 80
[5] From jimi Hendrix The man the magic
the truth – page 92
[6] From jimi Hendrix The man the magic
the truth – page 99
[7] From jimi Hendrix The man the magic
the truth – page 156
[8] Jimi Hendrix @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_hendrix#Guitar_legacy