Jimi Hendrix and His Contributions in the Rock and Roll Music

Jimi Hendrix and His Contributions in the Rock and Roll Music

Jimi Hendrix (James Marshall) was an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. His mainstream musical career only lasted for five years. However, the musician is considered as one of the most influential musicians and guitarists of all time. Jimi Hendrix is also regarded as one of the most celebrated iconic figures in the history of the 20^th century. The Roll and Rock Hall of Fames have described the singer as “the most influential and famous instrumentalists of all time and in the history of rock and roll music’.

Jimi Hendrix was born in Washington, Seattle, and started playing guitar when he was fifteen years of age. In 1960, he was enlisted in the United States Army, and he underwent training as a paratrooper with the ‘100st Airborne Division’. However, Jimi Hendrix was immediately discharged from the army in the following two years. Upon his dismissal from the military, he moved to Tennessee, Clarksville, after that, and started engaging in gigs plays on the Chitlin Circuit. He eventually earned a place in the Isleys Brothers Band. He later worked with the Little Richards for five years up until 1965. He also played with the Squires and Curt Knight before relocating to England in mid-1966. He was discovered by Keith Linda and would later become his manager. Within few months, Jimi Hendrix had earned four United Kingdom’s top twenty hits with the ‘James Marshall Experience: ‘Purple Haze,’ ‘Hey Joe’, and ‘The Wind is Crying of Mary’ (Borch et al., 2018). The musician received fame all across the United Kingdom and the United States following his iconic musical performance at the Pop Monterey Festival in 1966. His fourth and final studio recording album ‘Electric Ladyland’ topped the chart in the United States in 1969. It is considered as the most commercially successful album to have been released in history. It is only the number-one record.

Jimi Hendrix was one of the most highly paid guitarist performer in the world. He appeared in the Woodstock headlines in 1970 and the Wight Festival in 1971. Jimi Hendrix died in 1970 at the age of 28. The cause of his death was confirmed as barbiturate-related asphyxia.

Hendrix’s music career was mostly inspired by the American electric blues and rock and roll. He was the most favorite of overdriven amplify with increased volume and gains. The musician played an instrumental role in popularizing the once-undesirable and hated sounds caused by amplified guitar feedback. He is regarded as one of the pioneer guitarists to have made extensive usage of tone-altering unit effects in the world of rock, such as Octavia, fuzz-distortion, wah-wah, and Uni-Vibe. He was the first singer to have used the stereophonic phasing impact in his music recordings. For instance, Warren George of Rolling Stones says: Hendrix was the pioneer of the utilization of the instruments as an electronic sound source. Musical players before Jimi Hendrix had experimented with distortion and feedback (Daley, 2017). However, he was able to turn those sound effects and many others into a fluid, controlled vocabulary of every bit as personal as the electric blues’.

In 1968, the Melody Makers’ readers voted the musician as the Pop Singer of the Year. The Rolling Stone also declared him as the Musical Performer of the Year in 1969. Music and Disc Echo magazine honored Hendrix with the World Best Musician of 1969. The Guitar Player Magazine named him as the Rock Guitarist of the Year in 1971 (Daley, 2017). The James Marshall Experience was inducted into Roll and Rock Hall of Fame in 1998, and the United Kingdom Musical Hall of Fame in 2006. Rolling Stone ranked the singer’s three albums among the ‘100 famous hits of all time’.

First Recordings

In February 1965, Jimi Hedrix recorded his first album entitled ‘Testify.’ The album was recorded with the Isley Brothers. It was released in April but did not make it to the chart. In June, Jimi Hendrix provided guitar instruments for the song ‘Mercy Mercy’ by Covay Don. The dong was issued in July by the Atlantic and distributed by Rosemary Records. The song managed to reach 36 on the Billboard chart. Hendrix accompanied Isleys on their tour of 1965. However, by the end of September, after getting bored of playing the same instruments every night, Hendrix left the band. Afterward, he joined the Little Richards’ Upsetters Band. During their tour in Los Angles, California, in March 1965, Hendrix was able to record his first song with the band. The song was titled ‘I don’t know what you got (but it got me).’ It was written by Covay Don and distributed by Jay-Dee Records. The musician’s popularity was growing at the time, and his single song peaked at the chart at number 90 (Gordon, 2017). The song managed to raise the chart for one week. While residing at the Wilcoxies Restaurant in Hollywood, Hendrix met Lee Rosa Brooks, who invited him to take part in her single’s recording session. The single included essential songs, including the ‘My Diary’ (written by Lee Arthur and ‘Utee.’ Hendrix played the instruments on both songs, with the background vocal performed by Lee. However, the tracks did not chart, but Lee and Hendrix began a romantic relationship that lasted for some years. Jimi Hendrix became an active supporter of the Rosa Lee band.

In July 1964, Jimi Hendrix made his first televised appearance on Nashville’s Night Train Channel. While performing with the Little Richards’ band, Hendrix played as the vocalist for the ‘Shotgun’ song. The video recording of the song marked the earliest and first known footage of the musician. Hendrix and Richards often conflicted over wardrobe, tardiness, and Jimi’s stage antics. Eventually, the musician was fired in July 1965. However, on August 28, Jimi Hendrix signed his first contract with Murray Juggy at Copa Management and Sue Records. He briefly joined the Isley Brothers and managed to record his single with the band: ‘Just Move Away and Let Me Sing.’ The single was backed with ‘Do you got disappointed.’ Later that year, Hendrix joined an R&B band, which was based in New York – the Squires and Curt Knight. He joined the band after he met Curtis Knight in the lobby of a restaurant where both musicians were staying (James, 2017). Jimi Hendrix would perform with the band for nine months. In September 1964, together with Knight, Hendrix managed to record his single – ‘How You Feeling’ backed with ‘Home, You Stay.’

Despite the singer’s three-contract with Sue, Jimi Hendrix signed a five-year recording contract with businessman Ed Chalpin on November 16. However, his relationship with Ed Chalpin was short-lived, but their contract was continued. The contract caused the musician’s career and legal problems. On course of his relationship with Knight, Jimi Hendrix toured with the Starliters and Joey Dee. He also worked closely with King Curtis on many recordings, including ‘Help Me’ – a song by Ray Sharpe. Hendrix earned his credit for the instrumentals – ‘Knock Yourself Away’ and ‘Nest Hornets.’ The singles were released as the Squires and Curtis Knight’s singles in 1967 (Obrecht, 2018).

Feeling constrained by his experience as the R and B sideman, Jimi Hendrix, in 1968, relocated to Greenwich Village, New York, the area which has a diverse and vibrant music scene. While staying in Greenwich Village, he offered a residential house at the What Café on Dougal Street. Hendrix formed his band while staying at Wha Cafe. The band was named James Jimmy and the Blue Flame (Obrecht, 2018). Among the band’s guitarists included the future musician Randy California. In October, the band gave their concert at the Cafe Go au Go, with the Hammond John Jr. as the backing group.

Jimi Hendrix Experiences

By June 1965, Jimi Hendrix was struggling to earn enough salary while performing the R and B circuits. Consequently, he joined the Squires and the Curtis Knight for the New York’s engagement in one of the most popular nightspots – the Cheetah Club. During his musical performance, Keith Linda, the girlfriend of Keith Richards (Rolling Stones guitarist), noticed Jimi Hendrix and was motivated by his stylistic performance. She invited him for the evening meal, and the two became longtime friends.

While Jimi Hendrix was performing music with James Jimmy, and the Blue Flame, Linda Keith recommended him to the Rolling Stones managing director Loog Oldham Loog and producer Stein Seymour. However, they rejected him, noting that he had no ‘gene of music in his blood.’ Linda Keither referred him to Chandler Chas, who was working with ‘The Animals’ and was mostly interested in producing and managing artists. Chas Chandler saw the musician playing in Wha Café in Greenwich Village, New York City. He was mesmerized by his song ‘Hey Joe,’ and he decided to have a single with Hendrix. Motivated by his performance, he brought with him to the United Kingdom, London, on October 25, 1967. Chas Chandler signed Hendrix to the production and management contract with ex-animals managing director Jeffery Michael. On November 26, Hendrix gave an impromptu guitar performance at ‘The Scotch of Saint James’ (Sykes et al., 2017). He involved in a romantic relationship with Etchingham Kathy, and their friendship lasted for three and a half years.

Upon his arrival in London, Chas Chandler started recruiting people for a particular band that was purposefully designed to highlighting his music-signed musicians – the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix met Redding Noel – a guitarist – at the New Animals audition. Reddling’s knowledge of Rock and Roll and blues impressed Jimi Hendrix. Chandler asked Noel Reddling to play the bass guitar in Jimi Hendrix’s band, and he agreed. Chandler started looking for a drummer, and soon he was in contact with Mitchell Mitch. He came into contact with Mitchel through a friend, of whom had been fired from the Georges and the Blue Fame. Mitchel took part in the rehearsal with Hendrix and Redding, and they found common-shared interests in blues and rhythm. When Chandler contracted Mitchel later that night to offer him a position in the band, he gladly agreed. Chandler convinced Jimi Hendrix to consider changing the spellings of his name from ‘jimmy’ to ‘Jimi’ – exotic reference. On November 2, 1966, Hendrix accompanied Chandler to the London Polytechnic at Regent Street, the place where Cream was performing and where Eric Clapton and Hendrix met. Clapton would later say, ‘Hendrix asked me I could mind playing a couple of numbers, and I gladly said no and took charge. And I felt good about’. Halfway through the Cream performance, Jimi Hendrix took to the stage and performed the Wolf Howlin’ song ‘Floor Killing’ (Waksman, 2019). In 1990, Clapton described Hendrix’s performance ‘he played every form of captivating style, and not in a boring way. In mean Hendrix is a master of tricks – he liked playing with teeth and even striking strings behind his back, but it was not in an upstaging sensation at all, and it was over, he walked off the stage, and my life took a dramatic turn. I was not the same again’.

United Kingdom Success

In mid-November 1967, Chandler planned a musical engagement for the Jimi Hendrix Experience as Halladay Johnny’s supporting act during the tour of France. Therefore, Jimi Hendrix performed his show on November 12, 1967, in Evreux Novelty. His enthusiastic performance at the Paris Olympia theatre marked the earliest known footage recordings of the band. In late that month, Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert, ‘the Who’ managers signed Hendrix’s band to their newly established label – Track Recordings and managed to record their first song together ‘Hey Joe. ‘Stone Free was the first song by Hendrix upon his arrival in London and was released on November 3 (Williams, 2019).

In mid-November, the group recorded and performed at the O’Nails Bag nightclub London. The group comprised of John Lennon, Clapton, Jeff Beck, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Mick Jagger, Brian, and Kevin Ayers. John Lennon would later describe the event ‘the crown was stunned and in disbelief. All the musical stars were in attendance, and everybody was mad seeing them’. The iconic performance earned Jimi Hendrix his magazine interview, which was published by the Record Mirrors with a captivating headline – ‘Mr. Mystery’. Big Harry wrote under the headline – ‘Now note this…it is true that Hendrix is going to sweep across the music industry like a thunder.’ Hendrix said, ‘it is not essential to classify us in any way….if need be just call the ‘free feels – it’s a mixture of freak-out, rock, blues, and rave…or something.’ On May 30, 1968, while the band was waiting to perform at the Astoria, London, Chandler, and Hendrix discussed ways of increasing the band’s exposure to the media. When Chandler asked Altham Keith for advice, he suggested that it was better to do something dramatic while on stage like the smashing of guitar (Williams, 2019). During the performance, Jimi Hendrix gave a dynamic performance for 40 minutes before setting his guitar on fire. Hendrix went on to become one of the most influential and famous musicians both in England and the United States.