Hendrix was born in Seattle , Washington ,
in 1942. Following a less than stellar stint in the army, he got his start in
music as a session guitarist for R&B acts such as King Curtis and the Isley
Brothers, and in live performances with the likes of Slim Harpo, Jackie Wilson,
Curtis Knight and the Squires, and Sam Cooke. By the mid-Sixties, Hendrix had
dubbed himself, “Jimmy James” and with his band, The Blue Flames, was playing
the club scene in New York ’s Greenwich
Village .
In a fortuitous turn, Hendrix met the
girlfriend of The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, Linda Keith, at a New York City club. Keith
recommended Hendrix to the Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham and Chas
Chandler of the Animals. Chandler was impressed
with Hendrix’s song, “Hey Joe,” and brought him to London in the fall of 1966.
The first album,
“Are You Experienced,” was released in the United
Kingdom in the spring of 1967, and shortly thereafter in North America . It was an instant commercial and critical
success and contained the classic tunes, “Are You Experienced,” “Fire,” “Hey
Joe,” and “Purple Haze.” The album is now hailed as one of the greatest rock
albums ever recorded.
Hendrix would follow-up
his outstanding debut with “Axis: Bold as Love,” also from 1967. This album
contained fewer “hits,” but featured some technical innovations previously
unheard on popular music recordings. The opening track, “EXP,” contains channel-switching
stereo effects which have the guitar sound fading in one channel and re-emerging
in the other. Hendrix also uses the “wah-wah” pedal for the first time on this
recording.
For his third
effort, “Electric Ladyland” (1968), Hendrix brought in Steve Winwood, Dave Mason
and Chris Wood from Traffic and Al Kooper from The Blues Project. The ambitious
double album featured the epic tracks, “All Along the Watchtower,” probably the
best and most original Bob Dylan cover ever, and “Voodoo Chile (slight return).”
Hendrix and the
Experience would break-up and later reunite as “They Band of Gypsys,” and a
live album of the Gypsys would appear in 1970. Hendrix died of an apparent drug
overdose in London ,
in September of 1970.