Jimi Hendrix: The Legend

James Marshall Hendrix best known as Jimi Hendrix in the world of soul and R&B was born on 27th November 1942 and walked this earth till 18th September 1970. Within this short span of time, Jimi curved out his niche as a seasoned American guitarist. He was also a singer and a songwriter who has influenced the rock genre with his talents. By 1976, he had shot up to fame in the US due to his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. He also played for the Woodstock Festival and the Isle of Wight Festival taking place in 1969 and 1970.

Other than the band named Cream, Hendrix is another person who added to the popularity of wah-wah pedal in the genre of rock which often resulted to high pitch deliveries. The artists like B. B. King, Albert King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Elmore James had influenced Hendrix greatly. This list also included Steve Cropper, and Curtis Mayfield. Hendrix also had the platform of performing with the band of Little Richard. Being an innovative performer Hendrix used the record studio to improvise on his ideas extensively as a musician.

1966 saw Jimi Hendrix shooting to popularity as Chas Chandler promoted him for the song ‘Hey Joe’. Chandler had seen the talent in Jimi which convinced him that this person could deliver the hit singles that he was looking for and Chandler hence helped Jimi to come up with the band The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix made it quite big in UK where he did an on-stage jamming session with the Cream and simultaneously appeared on the UK TV pop shows like ‘Ready Steady Go!’ and BBC’s ‘Top Of The Pops’ etc. He also made fans like Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Brian Jones. ‘Experience’ released in 1966 was his first attempt to write a song and the following successful albums were ‘Stone Free’ and ‘Purple Haze’ which also featured the numbers like ‘Hendrix chord’ and ‘The Wind Cries Mary’.

Despite his UK success Hendrix was yet to make it to the US music charts and especially when his single couldn’t make it to the R&B list. But soon lady luck was by their side as Paul McCartney referred the band to the Monterey International Pop Festival organizers. A few of their popular numbers were Rock Me Baby, Tim Rose’s, and Hey Joe. Jimi’s second album was Axis: Bold as Love which was also the first recording done to come up with a stereo release. The popular albums done by Jimi Hendrix are - Are You Experienced, Electric Ladyland and Axis: Bold as Love while the prominent studio albums by Jimi Hendrix are Rainbow Bridge, Loose Ends, Nine to the Universe, The Cry of Love, War Heroes, Crash Landing, and Midnight Lightning.

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