Jimi Hendrix

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Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix is the quintessential rock guitarists, as much as Bob Dylan is the quintessential singer/songwriter and the Beatles are the ultimate rock band. As only classical or jazz players had done before him, Hendrix RE-defined his music's instrument: Expanding the possibilities of the amplified six-string, he confirmed beyond question its status as rock's essential vehicle What Yo-Yo Ma is to the cello or Charlie Parker was to the saxophone, so was Jimi Hendrix to the electric guitar. A psychic successor to Elvis Presley, Hendrix also embodied the politics of rock & roll as a black-white fusion- the twin pillars of his music were the earthiness of the blues and the ethereality of jazz, but his primary contemporary audience was rock fans and the psychedelic subgenre that provided the context for his particular triumph was a white one. Finally, through lyrics heavily influence by Bob Dylan, he delivered a message of universal emancipation. A personality large enough to thrive on apparently contradictory impulses, he was both the painstaking artists and the unabashed cock-rocker, a showman whose act presage the melodrama both of glitter and of punk, a player explosive enough to influence equally jazz perfectionists and heavy-metal thunderers, an erotic liberator and a spiritual force. Sly Stone and Prince obviously learned much from Hendrix; so did Pete Townshend (where there is an infamous story between the guitar-gods that resulted in a bit-of-a-scuffle which resulted from an argument about who [The Who or Jimi Hendrix Experience] would close out the Monterey Pop Festival of 1967... read that story here), Gil Evans, and Bob Marley.

The Seattle-born ex-paratrooper began his career, with mythic appropriateness, backing up such originators as B.B. King and Little Richard. Significantly however, he only hit his stride in Britain- where someone who possessed both Hendrix's looks and talent could pass for an exotic god: Animals bassists Chas Chandler hooked him up with bassists Noel Redding (a former lead guitarists whose playing would be sub-sequentially, and felicitously, betray its grounding in melody) and jazz-styled drummer Mitch Mitchell. The interracial Jimi Hendrix Experience was born- ready to come on like psychedelic supermen (already Jimi sometimes soloed with his teeth, and the band's freak-out garb was an acidhead's dream). Are You Experienced? was the Summer of Love debut, and it sounds like divine madness- "Purple Haze," "I Don't Live Today," "Manic Depression," and "Fire" were all feedback fines and arrogant virtuosity wrapped around lyrics sprung from primal wondering, lust, and fear.

Axis: Bold as Love plunged deeper. Ballads ("Little Wing") met mind-warp blues- the songs blurred together, metaphorically implying the fact of Hendrix's creative impatience (and prefiguring his later ventures into jazz freedom). Psychedelia triumph came next: a double-album manifesto feathering contributions from Steve Winwood, Buddy Miles, and Jack Casady, Electric Ladyland showed Hendrix serving notice of his unstoppable ambition. The chord progressions of "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" echoed Bach (and featured perhaps the only example of a wah-wah pedal employed elegantly; "Crosstown Traffic" was the Experience at its most rocking; "All Along the Watchtower" became Hendrix's classic Dylan cover; and, with "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)," the songwriter reached back into gris-gris mythology to fashion a mock-cosmic persona. Like the sounding of a gigantic gong, the album reverberated across the airwaves; it also sounded the death knell for the Experience.

Mitchell held on long enough to join Jimi and new bassist Billy Cox for an appearance at Newport, but the legendary Live at Woodstock album (including the famous, fiery "Star Spangled Banner") was performed by an ad hoc group called the Electric Sky Church, and by the time of the live album, Band of Gypsys, the drummer's post had been taken by the bombastic Buddy Miles. For once playing with an all black band, Hendrix tackled funk. "Machine Gun" and "Message of Love" were the fearsome highlights of the Gypsys album, yet while the power trio achieved the essence of force, it lacked melody- and aesthetic fullness suffered as a result.

Hendrix died in 1970, choking on vomit following barbiturate and alcohol intoxication, at a period of seeming creative transition. He'd been moving further away from rock, alternately returning to the blues, delving deeper into funk, and studying jazz fusion. The Cry of Love (1971, out of print), however, showed the master playing with Cox and Mitchell, at his most confident: "Ezy Rider" and "Angel" are the tough and tender faces of the genius at his most appealing.

A deluge of posthumous albums then began. In fact- Hendrix has released more posthumous albums than when he was alive! Of the live work, BBC Sessions and the Winterland box-set that includes every note from his three-night run from that legendary San-Fran venue. But one could argue his sets at Live at Berkley or Jimi Plays Monterey are the best of his career. By the grace of the Guitar God, in 1995, the Hendrix estate reclaimed the guitarist's catalogue from the hands of producer Alan Douglas, who had for years been clogging record-store shelves with half-ass-albums such as Crash Landing and The Cry of Love, and even a shit-album with a shit-title: Loose Ends- which combined unreleased Hendrix recordings with new overdubs and production. If you want to hear unreleased Hendrix material, go the estate's First Rays of the New Rising Sun and South Saturn Delta- both of these '90s compilations were remastered by Hendrix's original engineer, Eddie Kramer, and feature some blazing material. However, after the following release of the the three albums released by the estate (albums that hinted at where Hendrix was headed and compiled by the estate to the best of their knowledge on how Hendrix would have completed the album: 2010's Valleys of Neptune, 2013's People, Hell & Angels, and 2018's Both Sides of the Sky) the estate announced that the vault of unreleased material had run dry. Luckily, the estate still releases live performances (most recently, 2020's Live in Maui), and I say bring on as many live-re-mastered shows as you can bring!; As far as I'm concerned- Jimi never played a bad one! And you can ALWAYS rely on the industry-standard of celebrating an anniversary of an already re-issued album for a previous anniversary... BUT don't worry- these 'new' editions not just *deluxe* but also *super-deluxe* editions!!! What a steal for an album you probably already bought on vinyl, cassette, and CD and iTunes... so if you don't knew where to start with this massive catalogue- I would recommend the four-CD set The Jimi Hendrix Experience box-set, which collects some worthwhile unreleased music. And the best-of compilation(s) Smash Hits or Experience Hendrix is always a safe place to start for the newbie Hendrix fan as it is packed with the tightest collection of killer Hendrix.