Jimi Hendrix (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Hendrix is considered one of the greatest and most influential guitarists in rock music history.[1] After initial success in Europe, he achieved fame in the USA following his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Later, Hendrix headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival.
Hendrix helped develop the technique of guitar feedback with overdriven amplifiers.[2] He was influenced by blues artists such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Albert King, and Elmore James,[3][4][5][6] rhythm and blues and soul guitarists Curtis Mayfield, Steve Cropper, as well as by some modern jazz.[7]
Carlos Santana has suggested that Hendrix's music may have been influenced by his Native American heritage.[8] As a record producer, Hendrix also broke new ground in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas; he was one of the first to experiment with stereophonic and phasing effects during recording.
Hendrix won many of the most prestigious rock music awards in his lifetime and has been posthumously awarded many more, including being inducted into the USA's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. An English Heritage "Blue plaque" was erected in his name on his former residence at Brook Street, London in September 1997 and his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6627 Hollywood Blvd.) was dedicated in 1994. In 2006, his debut USA album, Are You Experienced, was inducted into the United States National Recording Registry and Rolling Stone named Hendrix number 1 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003.[9]
Biography
Early lifeHendrix was born on November 27, 1942, in Seattle, Washington, USA, while his father was in army camp in Oklahoma. He was named Johnny Allen Hendrix at birth by his mother, 17 year old Lucille Hendrix née Jeter.[10] She had put him in the temporary care of friends. On his release from the army his father, James Allen "Al" Hendrix, retrieved him and re-named him James Marshall Hendrix in memory of his deceased brother, Leon Marshall Hendrix.[11][12] He was known as "Buster" to friends and family, from birth.[13] Shortly after, Al reunited with Lucille. Al found it hard to gain steady employment after the Second World War, and the family experienced financial hardship. Hendrix had two brothers, Leon and Joseph, and two sisters, Kathy and Pamela. Joseph was born with physical difficulties and at the age of three was given up to state care. His two sisters were both given up at a relatively early age, for care and later adoption, Kathy was born blind and Pamela had some lesser physical difficulties. Hendrix's parents divorced when he was nine years old, and his mother died in 1958. On occasion, he was sent to live with his grandmother in Vancouver, British Columbia because of his unstable household, and his brother Leon was put into temporary welfare care for a period.[14] Hendrix grew up as a shy and sensitive boy, deeply affected by the conditions of poverty and neglect that he was raised in. In a relatively unusual experience for African Americans of his era, Hendrix' high school had a relatively equitable ethnic mix of African, European (including Jews) and Asian (Japanese, Filipino and Chinese) Americans.[15] At age 15, around the time his mother died, he acquired his first acoustic guitar for $5 from an acquaintance of his father. This guitar would replace both the broomstick he would strum in imitation and the one-stringed ukulele his father had found while cleaning out a garage, on which Jimi reportedly managed to play several tunes.[16][17] He learned by practicing almost constantly, watching others play, through tips from more experienced players and listening to records. In the summer of 1959, his father bought Hendrix a white Supro Ozark, his first electric guitar, but without an amplifier. That same year his only failing grade in school was an F in music class. According to fellow Seattle bandmates, he learned most of his acrobatic stage moves—a major part of the blues/R&B tradition—including playing with his teeth and behind his back, from a local youth, Raleigh "Butch" Snipes,[18] guitarist with local band The Sharps, and also performed the "duck walk" of Chuck Berry. He played in a couple of local bands, occasionally playing outlying gigs in Washington state and at least once over the border in Vancouver, British Columbia.[19]
Hendrix was particularly fond of Elvis Presley, whom he saw perform in Seattle, in 1957.[20] Leon Hendrix claims in an early interview that Little Richard appeared in his Central District neighborhood and shook hands with his brother, Jimi Hendrix, although unattested elsewhere and vehemently denied by his father.[21] Hendrix's early exposure to Blues music came from listening to records by Muddy Waters and B.B. King that his father owned.[22] Another impressionable image came from the 1954 western Johnny Guitar, in which the hero carries no gun but instead wears a guitar slung behind his back.
His first gig was with an unnamed band in the basement of a synagogue. After too much wild playing and showing off, he was fired between sets. The first formal band he played in was The Velvetones who performed regularly at the Yesler Terrace Neighborhood House without pay. His flashy style and left-handed playing of a right-handed guitar already made him a standout. He later joined the Rocking Kings who played professionally at such venues as the Birdland. When his guitar was stolen (after he left it backstage overnight), Al bought him a white Silvertone Danelectro which he painted red and emblazoned with the words "Betty Jean" (Morgan), the name of his high school girlfriend.
Hendrix had completed middle school with little trouble but didn't graduate from Garfield High School, although he would later be awarded an honorary diploma, and in the 1990s, a bust of Hendrix was placed in the school library. After he became famous in the late 1960s, Hendrix told reporters that he had been expelled from Garfield by racist faculty for holding hands with a white girlfriend in study hall. However, Principal Frank Hanawalt says that it was simply due to poor grades and attendance problems.[23]
Death
Early on September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix died in London under circumstances which have never been fully explained. He had spent the later part of the evening before at a party and was picked up by girlfriend Monika Dannemann and driven to her flat at the Samarkand Hotel. According to the estimated time of death, he died shortly afterwards.[90]
Dannemann claimed in her original testimony that Hendrix the evening before, unknown to her, had taken nine of her prescribed Vesperax sleeping pills. According to the doctor who initially attended to him, Hendrix had asphyxiated (literally drowned) in his own vomit, mainly red wine.[91] For years, Dannemann publicly claimed that Hendrix was alive when placed in the back of the ambulance. However, her comments about that morning were often contradictory, varying from interview to interview.[92] Police and ambulance statements reveal that there was no one but Hendrix in the flat, and not only was he dead when they arrived on the scene, but had been dead for some time.[93]
Lyrics to a song written by Hendrix and found in the apartment, led Eric Burdon to make a premature announcement on the BBC TV program 24 Hours, that he believed Hendrix had committed suicide.[94] Following a libel case brought in 1996 by Hendrix's long-term English girlfriend Kathy Etchingham, Monika Dannemann committed suicide, though her later lover, Uli Jon Roth, has made accusations of foul play.[95]
Guitar legacy
Fender Stratocaster
Hendrix owned and used a variety of guitars during his career. His guitar of choice however, and the instrument that became most associated with him, was the Fender Stratocaster, or "Strat". He started playing with Stratocasters in 1966 and thereafter used it almost exclusively for his stage performances and recordings.
Hendrix's emergence coincided with the lifting of post-war import restrictions (imposed in many British Commonwealth countries), which made the instrument much more available, and after its initial popularizers Buddy Holly and Hank B. Marvin, Hendrix arguably did more than any other player to make the Stratocaster the biggest-selling electric guitar in history. The Strat was a very popular guitar in the UK, due to Hank Marvin of The Shadows, a very influential early UK rock guitarist, Many leading guitarists, including Jeff Beck, Ritchie Blackmore and Eric Clapton, also played Stratocasters. Hendrix bought many Strats and gave some away as gifts. Some were stolen, and a few were destroyed during his notorious guitar-smashing finales. Hendrix actually set fire to two of them, the first time on the opening night of his first UK tour. The only other documented guitar-burning incident was at the Monterey Pop festival, his USA debut appearance as the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The original sunburst Stratocaster that Hendrix burnt and broke the neck off at the Astoria in 1967, and that he kept as a souvenir, was given to Frank Zappa by a Hendrix roadie at the 1968 Miami Pop Festival. Zappa assumed it was the one Hendrix had played there.[108]
A remarkable fact about Hendrix is that he was left-handed, and like most lefties used right-handed guitars, naturally turned upside-down and re-strung for playing left-handed, so that the heavier strings were in their standard position at the top of the neck.[109] This had an important effect on the sound of his guitar: because of the slant of the Strat's bridge pickup, his lowest string had a bright sound while his highest string had a mellow sound, the opposite of the Stratocaster's intended design.[110]
A new Stratocaster model (with a wide headstock) was launched in late 1968, and as the cohesion of the Experience began to deteriorate, Hendrix wished to vary his playing and his repertoire with this new design[citation needed]. Choosing Stratocasters with a light-tone maple fretboard (supposedly giving a "brighter" sound than the "darker" rosewood)[citation needed], he wanted to balance the high-power play with further versatility and velocity, so in early 1969, he opted for heavy-gauge strings[citation needed]which he combined with a tuning lowered a half-step from normal pitch, a technique which he picked up from Albert King in 1966[citation needed]. This enhanced the possibilities offered by the interlaced rhythm and solos during the Olmstead Studios sessions of April 1969[citation needed]. Later on tour, this stringing caused the drawback of more frequent losses in tuning after pushing down (or pulling) the tremolo bar[citation needed]; Hendrix would often ask the audience for a "minute to tune up" several times during the same concert.
In addition to Fender Stratocasters, Hendrix was also photographed playing Jazzmasters, Duosonics, two different Gibson Flying Vs, a Gibson Les Paul, three Gibson SGs, a Gretsch Corvette he used at the 1967 Curtis Knight sessions and miming with a right strung Fender Jaguar on the "Top Of The Pop's" TV show, as well as several other brands.[111]. Jimi used a white Gibson SG Custom for his performances on the Dick Cavett show in the summer of 1969, and the Isle of Wight film shows him playing his second Gibson Flying V. While Jimi had previously owned a Flying V that he'd painted with a psychedelic design, the Flying V used at the Isle of Wight was a unique custom left-handed guitar with gold plated hardware, a bound fingerboard and "split-diamond" fret markers that were not found on other 60s-era Flying Vs.
On December 4, 2006, one of Hendrix's 1968 Fender Stratocaster guitars with a sunburst design was sold at a Christie's auction for USD$168,000.[112]
Amplifiers and effects
Hendrix was a catalyst in the development of modern guitar effects pedals. His high-energy stage act and the high volume at which he played required robust and powerful amplifiers. For the first few rehearsals he used Vox and Fender amplifiers. Sitting in with Cream, Hendrix played through a new range of high-powered guitar amps being made by London drummer turned audio engineer Jim Marshall, and they proved perfect for his needs. Along with the Stratocaster, the Marshall stack and amplifiers were crucial in shaping his heavily overdriven sound, enabling him to master the use of feedback as a musical effect. His use of this brand made it very popular.
The sound of Hendrix's recordings seemed to have progressively changed from the "sharp edge" of 1966 and 1967 to the warmer sounds of 1969 and 1970[citation needed] . The first two albums were recorded in England with his British-made Marshall amps operating at 240 volts/50 Hertz. He then recorded in the US (beginning in May 1968 on Electric Ladyland), under 110 volts/60 Hertz.[113] The evolution in the Stratocasters used (pre-1968 versus post-1968 models) may have contributed to this change as well. Weather conditions may also have had an effect on his amps: the warm sound of Woodstock contrasts to the "edgy" sound of the Isle of Wight recordings[citation needed]. During the Isle of Wight video Hendrix has numerous equipment problems, during "All Along the Watchtower" his wah pedal squeals at a high pitch instead of functioning normally, after struggling with it during a solo Hendrix can be clearly seen to turn toward the camera and his support crew and say "wah wah, get me another wah wah" as the show progresses further pieces of equipment are replaced.[disputed]Both Fender Stratocasters and Marshall amps were evolving to a more edgy sound[citation needed], the Marshall amps in particular went through numerous electronic changes between 1966 and 1970 with the 1970 amp having considerably more treble edge than the earlier units[citation needed]. These supposed sound changes are more likely caused by[citation needed]the erratic performance of Arbiter Fuzz Face units which were highly inconsistent, and subject to changes in tone due to both temperature and battery conditions. As Hendrix's recording career progressed he made greater use of customized and custom voiced fuzz units or reworked Fuzz Faces. In contrast the first albums were made under more basic, low budget conditions with less time spent[citation needed] obtaining guitar sounds and effects.
Hendrix constantly looked for new guitar effects. He was one of the first guitarists to move past simple gimmickry and to exploit the full expressive possibilities of electronic effects such as the Arbiter Fuzz Face and wah-wah pedal. He had a fruitful association with engineer Roger Mayer who later went on to make, the Axis fuzz unit, the Octavia octave doubler and several other devices based on units Mayer had created or tweeked for Hendrix. The Japanese made Univibe was another effect and is particularly interesting, designed to electronically simulate the modulation effects of the rotating Leslie speaker it provided a rich phasing sound with a speed control pedal. The Band of Gypsies track "Machine Gun" highlights use of the univibe, octavia and fuzz face pedals.
The Hendrix sound combined high volume and high power, feedback manipulation, and a range of cutting-edge guitar effects. He was also known for his trick playing, which included playing with only his right (fretting) hand, using his teeth or playing behind his back and between his legs, although he soon grew tired of audience demands to perform these tricks. Hendrix had large hands and used his thumb almost constantly to fret bass notes, leaving his fingers free to play melodic fills on top, thereby facilitating his noted ability to play lead and rhythm parts simultaneously. This technique was made easier by his Stratocasters' 7.25" fingerboard radius; more rounded than the modern standard 9.5"[citation needed]. A clear demonstration of this thumb technique can be witnessed in the Woodstock video, during the song Red House there are excellent closeups of Hendrix's fretting hand.
(Posting by Reza Mahendra)
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