Jimi Hendrix

About Jimi Hendrix

Few musicians are as universally beloved as the guitar god Jimi Hendrix. Nearly a half century after his death, his music still sounds like it comes from another planet, and he can be credited with single-handedly advancing rock n' roll light-years into the future. The man played the guitar like it was a part of his body, and he could channel any emotion with virtuosic intensity. Of course, Jimi's legacy is also one of rock's bitterest stories, and we'll never know what kind of sounds he'd have created if he had lived past the age of 27. Jimi Hendrix's death was a stunning loss for music fans, and this was only compounded by the fact that he was the first of several young, talented musicians to succumb to 1960's excess. When his friends and fellow musicians recall their brief time with Jimi Hendrix, they usually talk about a visionary and passionate man who was also isolated, more by his own talent than anything else. Young Jimi Hendrix was fascinated with Elvis Presley, and he would enthusiastically strum an old broom until he got his first electric guitar at the age of 15. Seattle in the 1950's and 60's was a surprisingly ethnically diverse neighborhood, which meant that Jimi got a chance to see many of his rhythm n' blues heroes perform live. He never had a guitar lesson in his life, and he developed his own intensely physical style by imitating the moves of artists like Chuck Berry and Little Richard. A stint in the army introduced Hendrix to the bassist Billy Cox, and after being discharged the two hooked up in Tennessee and began performing soul and blues music on the infamous Chitlin Circuit, an established touring route made up of African American oriented venues. Things were rough until Hendrix moved to Harlem in 1965 and quickly got involved in Greenwich Village's anything-goes white hot music scene. Jimi impressed everyone from Les Paul and Eric Clapton to Frank Zappa and Keith Richards. In 1966, The Jimi Hendrix Experience formed with the English musicians Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell and the combo successfully toured all over the world. Jimi Hexdrix's crashing, transcendental singles would eventually include "Purple Haze", "Foxy Lady", "Hey Joe", Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watch Tower", "Voodoo Child" and the protest song "Machine Gun."