Jimi Hendrix Biography

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (November 27, 1942 - September 18, 1970) was a Blues/rock guitarist, Top 40 act and an undisputed guitar innovator whose recordings during the psychedelic era helped to redefine the sound of the electric guitar which also proved an inspiration for heavy metal music.

Biography

Born in Seattle, Washington, he followed a medical discharge from the 101st Airborne Division (from a broken ankle after a parachute jump). Hendrix, who had been playing guitar (left handed) since childhood, initially made his living supporting touring soul and blues musicians, including Curtis Knight, B. B. King and Little Richard during 1965. His first notice came from appearances with The Isley Brothers, notably on the two-parter "Testify" in 1964. On October 15, 1965, Hendrix signed a three year recording contract with Ed Chaplin, receiving $1 and 1% royalty on records with Curtis Knight. The agreement was later to cause continual litigation problems with Hendrix and other record labels.

By 1966 he had his own band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, and a residency at the Cafe Wha? in New York City. While with the Blue Flames, he was discovered by Chas Chandler, of British rock group The Animals, who brought him to England, where Chandler as the record producer helped Hendrix form a new band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell.

After a few concerts, the band started to gain a reputation amongst their contemporaries, impressing Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, as well as members of The Beatles and The Who, who signed him to their record label. This promise was borne out in their first single, a cover of "Hey Joe", a stylized blues song that was virtually a standard for rock bands at the time.

Further success came with the follow-up, the incendiary original "Purple Haze", whose heavily distorted guitar sound would be highly influential for the next 20 years, and the ballad "The Wind Cries Mary". These three songs were all Top 10 hits. 1967 also saw the release of the group's first album, Are You Experienced, whose mix of melodic ballads ("Remember"), pop-rock ("Fire"), psychedelia ("Third Stone From The Sun") and traditional 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. He was later warned by Rank Theatre management to "tone down" his stage act after causing damage to amplifiers and stage equipment at his shows.

At the instigation of Paul McCartney the band was booked for the Monterey Pop Festival, and the concert, featuring Hendrix's iconic burning and smashing guitar, was immortalised by filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker in his film Monterey Pop. The Montery festival was seen as a triumphant homecoming. This was followed by a short tour opening for the pop group The Monkees, who asked for him simply because they wanted to see him play. Unfortunately, the Monkees' audience didn't warm to Hendrix and he quit the tour just as "Purple Haze" began to chart. Chas Chandler later admitted that being thrown off The Monkees tour was designed to give maximum media impact and outrage for Hendrix given the complaints from the conservative Daughters of the American Revolution.

Meanwhile back in England, Hendrix's wild-man image and musical gimmickry (such as playing the guitar with his teeth) continued to garner him publicity. 1967 also saw the release of his second album. Axis: Bold as Love was in the vein of the album Are You Experienced, with tracks such as "Little Wing" and "If 6 Was 9" showing his continuing mastery of his instrument. However, increasing personality differences with Noel Redding combined with the influence of drugs and alcohol led to a disastrous tour of Scandinavia. On January 4, 1968, Hendrix was jailed by Stockholm police, after completely trashing a hotel room.

The band's third recording, the double album Electric Ladyland 1968 , was more eclectic and experimental, featuring a lengthy blues jam ("Voodoo Chile"), the jazz inflected "Still Raining, Still Dreaming" and what is probably the definitive version of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower". (Hendrix credited British band The Alan Bown for inspiration on the arrangement.) The recording of the album was extremely problematic, with Hendrix's work habits becoming erratic and a studio filled with his hangers-on caused longtime producer Chandler to quit on December 1, 1968. Chandler complained that Hendrix's insistence on doing multiple takes on every song ("Gypsy Eyes" apparently took 43 takes and he still wasn't satisfied with the result), combined with what he saw as incoherence caused by drugs led to him to sell his share of the management to Mike Jeffrey.

Despite this, many of the album tracks show Hendrix's expansion beyond the scope of the original trio (it is said that the sound of this record would help inspire Miles Davis' sound on Bitches Brew). Due to this expansion of horizons, and a deterioration in his relationship with his bandmates (and particularly Redding), the Experience broke up. His relations with the public also came to a head when on January 4, 1969 he was accused by television producers of being arrogant after playing an impromptu version of "Sunshine of your Love" past his allotted timeslot on the BBC1 show Happening for Lulu. On May 3 he was arrested at Toronto International Airport after heroin was found in his luggage. He was later bailed for $10,000 US. On June 29, Noel Redding formally announced to the media that he had quit the Jimi Hendrix Experience, although he effectively ceased to be with Hendrix during most of the recording of Electric Ladyland.

By August of 1969, however, Hendrix had formed a new band in order to play the Woodstock festival. The set, while notably under-rehearsed, ragged, and played out to a slowly emptying field of revellers, featured an improvised instrumental version of "The Star Spangled Banner", distorted almost beyond recognition, clearly symbolic of the unrest in US society over both civil rights issues and the Vietnam War. "The Star Spangled Banner" was an instant classic. The inspiration was politically motivated and it was the cry of the new generation.

The Woodstock band was short lived, and Hendrix formed a new trio, Band Of Gypsys, comprising Billy Cox, an old army buddy, on bass and Buddy Miles on drums, for two concerts around New Year 1969/70. His association with Miles however was not to last and ended abruptly during a concert at Madison Square Gardens on January 28, 1970, when Hendrix walked out after playing just two songs, telling the audience "I'm sorry we just can't get it together". Miles later stated during a television interview that Hendrix felt he was losing the spotlight to other musicians. The rest of that year was spent recording sporadically, often with Mitchell, and attempting to carry out the Rainbow Bridge project, an ambitious combination of film/album/concert set in Hawaii. On July 26, Hendrix played at his hometown of Seattle at Sicks Stadium, where under the influence of drugs he started verbally abusing members of the audience.

In August he played at the Isle of Wight festival with Mitchell and Cox, expressing disappointment onstage 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. Bassist Billy Cox quit the tour and headed back to the United States after reportedly being dosed with PCP (phencyclidine). Hendrix remained in England, and on September 18th, he died in bed of suffocation (vomit inhalation) after taking too many of an unfamiliar German sleeping pill. His body was returned home and he was interred in the Greenwood Memorial Park, Renton, Washington, USA.

He left behind more than 300 unreleased recordings, and became legendary as one of the 1960s' rock-n-roll musicians, like Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison, to 'go on to the next world' at so young an age.

Hendrix's musicianship along with his lyrical style definitely created a unique 'experience'. Still today, not all Jimi Hendrix' musical configurations are known.

Jimi Hendrix, a 20th century music artist, is still being listened to in the next century, around the world, by new generations of music lovers. His material can be found in many new media forms - VHS, CD, DVD - doing live performances and personal interviews. Jimi Hendrix stepped into his own mind and experiences, shared it with the world, and so changed millions of peoples formulated ideas about music. As with other loved musicians, Jimi Hendrix' music is known to 'speak' to one's soul.