Jimi Hendrix

Biography

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (27 November 1942, Seattle, Washington – 18 September 1970, London, England) was an American musician, songwriter and virtuoso guitarist, widely hailed by fans and music critics as the best electric guitarist of all time.
Jimi Hendrix's first guitar only had one string, yet Hendrix figured out many different ways he could make noise and almost music with it. Mostly self-taught on the instrument, the left-handed Hendrix used a right-handed guitar that was restrung and played right side up. As a guitarist, he built upon the innovations of blues stylists such as B. B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, T-Bone Walker, and Muddy Waters, as well as those of rhythm and blues and soul music guitarists like Curtis Mayfield. Hendrix's music was also influenced by jazz; he often cited Rahsaan Roland Kirk as his favorite musician. He also admired the style of ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons and once said that Billy was his favorite guitarist. In addition, Hendrix extended the tradition of rock guitar: although previous guitarists, such as The Kinks' Dave Davies, and The Who's Pete Townshend, had employed techniques such as feedback, distortion and other effects as sonic tools, Hendrix was able to exploit them to a previously undreamed-of extent, and to incorporate them as an integral part of his compositions.
Hendrix so desired a guitar by the time he was in grade school that he had fits of depression when his father, who viewed the instrument as frivolous and jazz/rock as sinful, refused to get him one. His school counsellor told his father to get him a guitar, and his father gave him a one-stringed toy guitar. Jimi played it so much that his father finally relented and bought his son a real guitar.
As a record producer, Hendrix was an innovator in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas. Hendrix was notably one of the first to experiment with stereo effects during the recording process. Hendrix was also an accomplished songwriter whose compositions have been performed by countless artists. Finally, his image and influence as a rock star place him in the company of Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Keith Richards, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Hendrix's first idol Elvis Presley.
The controversial nature of Hendrix's style is epitomized in the sentiments expressed about his renditions of the "Star Spangled Banner", a tune he played loudly and sharply accompanied by simulated sounds of war (machine guns, bombs and screams) from his guitar. His impressionistic renditions have been described by some as anti-American mockery and by others as a generation's statement on the unrest in U.S. society, oddly symbolic of the beauty, spontaneity, and tragedy that was endemic to Hendrix's life. When taken to task on the Dick Cavett Show on the "unorthodox" nature of his performance, Hendrix replied, "I thought it was beautiful."