Jimi Hendrix was a guitarist, singer, and composer from the United States who merged American blues, jazz, rock, and soul traditions with British avant-garde rock techniques to rebrand the electric guitar in his image ¹ ² ³ ⁴. Despite having a brief career as a featured artist that lasted only four years, Hendrix had a significant impact on popular music and rose to fame as one of his generation's most accomplished and influential musicians. He was a musician who completely changed the electric guitar's expressive potential and sonic palette, and he wrote a fantastic collection of songs that spanned from ferocious rockers to delicate, intricate ballads. He was also the most captivating live performer of his time. Furthermore, he was a visionary who dismantled the musical barriers between rock, soul, blues, and jazz, and an iconic figure whose allure connected the interests of white hippies and black revolutionaries by dressing black fury in the vibrant costumes of London's Carnaby Street.
Here are some of the key highlights of Jimi Hendrix's life and career ¹ ² ³ ⁴:
*Early Life:*
- Born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942, in Seattle, Washington.
- Later renamed James Marshall by his father, James "Al" Hendrix.
- Grew up in a low-income home with a single mother and later sent to live with relatives in Berkeley, California.
- Father returned from Europe in 1945, took Jimi back, divorced his wife, and renamed him James Marshall Hendrix.
*Music Career:*
- Taught to play acoustic guitar by his father at 13.
- Dropped out of high school in 1959 and enlisted in the U.S. Army.
- Honorably discharged after breaking his ankle during a training parachute jump.
- Worked as a sideman on the rhythm-and-blues circuit, honing his craft but making little or no money.
- Moved to New York City, hoping to get a break in the music business.
- Formed his own band, James & the Blue Flames, and played at Cafe Wha?.
- Discovered by Chas Chandler, who asked him to come to London to form his own band.
- Renamed Jimi by Chandler, who dropped James and replaced it with Jimi.
- Formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell.
- Released first single "Hey, Joe" and first album "Are You Experienced?" in 1967.
- Released "Axis: Bold as Love" in 1967 and "Electric Ladyland" in 1968.
- Performed at Woodstock in 1969 with the Gypsies, Sun and Rainbows.
- Formed a new band with Billy Cox and Buddy Miles, releasing "The Band of Gypsys" in 1970.
- Last album, "Cry of Love," featured Cox on bass and former Experience drummer Mitchell on drums.
*Personal Life and Death:*
- Took sleeping pills, which were prescribed for his live-in girlfriend Monika Danneman, on the night of September 17, 1970.
- Threw up from an apparent allergic reaction to the pills and then passed out.
- Found lying where he collapsed, having inhaled his own vomit, and couldn't wake him.
- Pronounced dead a short while later without regaining consciousness at 27 years old.
