Jimmy Hendricks is one of the pioneers of virtuoso guitar playing. This man alone managed to expand his ideas about rock music to limitless limits. Nowadays, the artist is considered a true legend of a bygone era. What kind of person was he? What about the career and personal life of the cult guitarist? What musical works of Jimi Hendrix are worthy of attention? Read about all this in our article.
Musician childhood
Jimi Hendrix was born in the city of Seattle, Washington, November 27, 1942. The father of our hero Al was an ordinary average African American. Mother Lucille had Indian roots. On the far line in the family of the future star were Indian and Irish branches. Such an amazing symbiosis of individual bloods and cultural traditions has largely affected the formation of the performer's unique guitar style.
Parents of little Jimi Hendrix divorced soon after the birth of their son. Then there was a sudden death of the mother. Due to the constant employment of his father, the boy was forced to be in the care of his grandparents almost all the time. The upbringing of the latter had a positive impact on the development of the innate talent of the baby, who began to join in high art and creativity. However, young Jimi Hendrix formed a love of guitar playing absolutely spontaneously.
As a teenager, the guy acquired a used acoustic instrument, spending a ridiculous five dollars. The study of the simplest chords followed. Understanding the basics of playing the guitar took almost all of the boy’s free time. After a while, Jimi could no longer imagine himself without music.
Criminal record and military service
Closer to adulthood, our hero was forced to leave his favorite pastime. The reason was the participation of young Hendrix in car theft. The guy was convicted and received a prison term of two years in prison. However, the useful contacts and experience of the lawyer allowed the young man to avoid the conclusion. Military service was replaced by severe punishment.
Reluctantly accepting the verdict, Jimi Hendricks became an employee of the US Airborne Division. However, literally a year later he went to the hospital, seriously injuring his leg after an unsuccessful landing during a parachute jump. Due to injury, he was demobilized. Once at home, our hero again returned to the development of guitar playing skills.
Career start
Leaving the army service behind, the talented musician took on the pseudonym Jimi James and began performing at the Nashville concert venues, where he moved with longtime comrade Billy Cox. Young performers began to collaborate with the popular artist Little Richard. However, a creative conflict soon occurred that forced Hendrix to found his own team, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames.
After playing for some time in nightlife, Jimi began working with musician Ches Chandler, who was a member of the famous rock band Animals. Together they went to London. It was here that the guitarist decided to organize the Jimi Hendrix Experience project. Having accepted the skillful drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding into the team, the musician got the opportunity to fully realize his own hidden potential. Ches Chandler did everything so that the new team as soon as possible took a place on the capital's pop scene. A year later, the songs of Jimi Hendrix became the main topic of discussion in the creative circles of London.
Artist's finest hour
In 1967, Jimi Hendrix's group presented the debut disc Are You Experienced to a wide audience of listeners. It was during this period that the musician began to attract public attention with his extraordinary antics on stage, setting fire to the guitar during the performance of solo parts. Receiving hand burns did not stop our hero from starting to record the second album, which was called Axis: Bold as Love. The release of the record almost broke, as Jimi lost records of some of the compositions. Musical achievements were urgently restored, and at the end of that year, long-suffering compositions were released.
Soon rock lovers and authoritative critics recognized Are You Experienced as the most talented and successful work of the late 60's. The virtuoso guitarist at one point became the star of show business of the first magnitude. In the British charts, the musician’s songs were second only to The Beatles’s most famous records. Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze, which entered the record for the US market, was subsequently recognized by the authoritative Rolling Stone as a worthy list of hundreds of the greatest guitar creations in music history. Nowadays, the song has the status of one of the hippies' anthems.
Last performance and sudden death
Being in the status of a star of world magnitude, Hendricks began to abuse drugs. The last time the legendary musician took to the stage at the Isle of Wight festival in London. Jimi went backstage early, being booed by an audience that did not want to listen to new guitarist compositions.
The interrupted concert turned out to be the final in the life of the cult artist. On the morning of September 18, 1970, Hendrix was found lifeless in a hotel room in London's Samarkand Hotel. According to the friend of guitarist Monica Duneman, who also spent the night in the room, the musician took a huge amount of sleeping pills the day before, trying to sleep after a hard day. However, Jimi did not manage to wake up.
Jimi Hendrix Films
In memory of the musician who suddenly died, several films were shot. In 2010, the world saw the documentary "Jimi Hendrix: The Child of Voodoo", released by director Bob Smeaton. The film shows concert recordings, family photos, drawings and archives of the correspondence of the legendary guitarist.
In September 2013, visitors to the Toronto Film Festival were shown the feature film "Jimi: Everything is on my side." The picture tells about the life and work of a musician at the dawn of a career. The film focuses on the story of the release of the cult plate Are You Experienced.