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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
A guitar god's legacy
By Jim Abbott | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted November 26, 2002
In the same way that it's impossible to imagine an old Elvis, it's jarring to realize that Jimi Hendrix would have turned 60 this week.
The world's seminal rock guitarist is frozen in time, clad in paisley and leather, on his knees coaxing fire from his instrument and changing rock forever.
He's still the ultimate guitar hero in a modern era that hasn't produced many.
"You have to have discipline, and you also have to know your bloody instrument backwards," says legendary recording engineer Eddie Kramer.
"That's missing to some extent today."
If Kramer has high standards, that's an understandable side effect from working with Jimi Hendrix, arguably the most revered rock guitarist the world has known. On a resume that includes work with Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Rolling Stones and on the original Woodstock soundtrack, Kramer's reputation is most closely tied to Hendrix.
Though Hendrix's career was cut short at 27 by his overdose in 1970, the guitarist who would have turned 60 on Wednesday left an astonishing legacy.
The music remains timeless -- and abundant. Hendrix's seminal 1967 song "Purple Haze" blasted in the trailer for the action film XXX. A new collection of his concert and studio recordings recently debuted in the British Top 10. In San Diego, there was an all-star tribute concert with Slash, Ace Frehley, Living Colour, Los Lobos, Stephen Stills, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Mick Taylor.
The 2002 Jimi Hendrix Red House Tour, memorabilia and exhibits housed in a technicolored 18-wheeler, attracts new generations of fans to celebrate the musician's life and career.
And the steady flow of new Hendrix releases includes Blue Wild Angel: Jimi Hendrix Live at the Isle of Wight (Experience Hendrix-MCA-UME), his quintessential performance before 600,000 at the massive 1970 outdoor festival held only weeks before he died.
The album is available on a single 11-song disc featuring concert highlights or as an individually numbered limited edition double CD that includes the uncut performance. There's also a numbered vinyl edition and a DVD with 5.1 Surround Sound mastered by Kramer.
Although Kurt Cobain might be a commercially marketed rock martyr and pop-culture icon for the MTV generation, discriminating observers say a musical comparison favors Hendrix.
"Kurt Cobain was a talented rock star, but he wasn't doing anything new," says Sean Egan, author of Jimi Hendrix and the Making of 'Are You Experienced ' (A cappella, $14.95). "By that time, there was nothing new to do."
In 1967, Hendrix teamed with Kramer and producer Chas Chandler to coax mindbending sounds from rudimentary studio technology. His look and style were like nothing that preceded him.
"When people first experienced Hendrix, it was like, 'Is this an alien?' " says Michael Molenda, editor-in-chief of Guitar Player magazine, noting that Hendrix remains the magazine's best-selling cover act.
"He represents an era when someone brought something larger to the guitar. He twisted it while still playing homage to the roots."
Those roots would be enriched with supercharged ambition when Hendrix was introduced to Kramer, a South African-born engineer recommended because of his taste for avant-garde jazz.
"I was exposed to all kinds of music, so I think Jimi really appreciated the fact that he found someone not put off by his looks or music," Kramer says by phone from his New York home. "I was very fortunate to be given an opportunity to experiment."
Innovations percolated incessantly in sessions for the classic albums Are You Experienced?, Electric Ladyland and Axis: Bold as Love. Kramer twisted studio dials in unheard-of directions, and Hendrix responded by turning standard guitar technique on its ear. It was a competitive atmosphere that sparked a genius.
On the guitar, Hendrix embodied a kaleidoscope of musical influences. The Southern R&B that he absorbed playing the chitlin' circuit with bassist Billy Cox was spiced by the early rock 'n' roll he did as a member of Little Richard's road band. His double octave solos were a reference to jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, and the gut-bucket emotion of "Red House" updated the blues.
"Once, I was invited to Jimi's hotel to bring some tapes. I looked at the record player, and there was a pile of classical records, Bach and Handel, Mozart and Beethoven," Kramer says.
"I said, 'Jimi, you're listening to classical?' He said, 'Yeah man, I get some of my inspiration from that.' It's so true that Jimi was influenced by all the sounds around him."
Although "Purple Haze" and other fuzzed-out anthems would be the soundtrack for the 1960s, Hendrix was even more impressive when he turned down the volume. The warm, twisting Stratocaster in "Little Wing" makes that song one of Kramer's favorite Hendrix recordings.
"He played with a lot of subtlety and attention to the quality of the sound and its purity. He was able to elicit tremendously deep emotions. He was able to get these beautiful tones, even at a low volume level, because he had such control of the guitar.
"He had gigantic hands. His thumb was abnormally large, so he could bar the neck of the guitar with his thumb. Jimi was able to play lead and rhythm at the same time."
Lyrically, Hendrix was a disciple of Bob Dylan, always carrying a Dylan songbook in his flight bag and famously covering "All Along the Watchtower" in a way that Dylan has called its definitive performance. He impressed the Beatles with a churning club version of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," perhaps the only musician who would have dared to try it.
Sgt. Pepper was released the same year as Are You Experienced?, and Kramer remembers that Hendrix always had an eye on the Beatles. When the band would employ a new studio trick, Hendrix would attempt to expand it.
"It was always, 'We have to go one better,' " Kramer says. "There was tremendous competition in those days between studios and a definite respect. When Jimi opened his show in London in 1967, I remember going up to the dressing room, looking at the turntable and seeing Sgt. Pepper. It had only been out two days, and he was rehearsing it with the band before he went on. Then, he went out and killed. The Beatles' jaws dropped to the floor."
Although it's impossible to predict what Hendrix might haveaccomplishedhad he lived, Kramer calls him a musician perfectly suited to his era.
"It was a very unusual set of circumstances that produced him, the timing and the political situation. There was the Vietnam War and all of that, the hippies, the flower power. The whole world was radically changing and he was of that time -- but also was beyond it."
Jim Abbott can be reached at [email protected] or 407-420-6213.
Copyright � 2002, Orlando Sentinel
For more about Jimi and the Stones, check our space Jimi was a rolling stone, enjoy!
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| gypsymofo60 |
Thanks for that Voodoo, great story! Kurt Cobain vs Jimi Hendrix_pleeeeeeeeze! The older I get the more I come to appreciate this guys phenomenal talent, it seems sad yet somehow fitting today that he came onto the scene like a comet, and flashed before our eyes before we even had a chance to comprehend just what it was we'd been priviliged to witness. A great sadness in life for me is that I will never see film of Robert Johnson, Son House, or Bukka White, but at least we still get to see Mr. Hendrix thanks to film. By the way Voodoo, can you please translate the lyrics from 'Hey Negrita' for me if you can, those lyrics have always bugged me. Please don't think I'm being rude. |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
Sure LOL, but the spanish there is not Spanish is SPANGLISH
First is the lyrics, then the "proper" Spanish and the the translation:
Come si ciama = Come se llama = how is your name?
Hey conchita = conchita is a nickname for the name Concepci�n
Mueva las carreras = mueve las caderas = move your hips
Just a momentita = Just a momentito = just a little time
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| gypsymofo60 |
Cheers mate! Spanglish, LOL! I thought as much, but what is Bate las caderas? And is it about prostitution? I know I'm very thick. |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
Bate and move are almost the same. move your hips... move your ass with style you know!
Well... maybe the best translation for bate las caderas is "shake your hips" while Mueve las caderas is "move your hips"
[Edited by VoodooChileInWOnderl] |
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| gypsymofo60 |
OK! Thanks again, by the way did you get my reply to your email that time? |
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| RubyFriday |
Thanks Voodoo to remind us of the greatest guitar player ever.I was lucky (?) to attend his last concert at the Love & Peace Festival of Fehmarn 1970.There�s a memorial rock since a few years.
 
[Edited by RubyFriday] |
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| stonedinaustralia |
he did THE version of "like a rollin' stone" |
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| RubyFriday |
He did THE version of All Along The Watchtower |
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| Maxlugar |
Thanks Voodoo.
Jimi is one of only a handful of artists that I consider important.
When the C10 descended upon the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there was a room playing a live show of his.
I could have stayed there all day.
But Joey kept pulling me on the arm saying "Come on, I have to go pee pee!"
Friggin' pain in the ass.
Kunta Maxay!
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| stonedinaustralia |
quote:
Maxlugar wrote:
But Joey kept pulling me on the arm saying "Come on, I have to go pee pee!"
Friggin' pain in the ass.
Kunta Maxay!
yes max, aren't you glad he's dead now
i know i am |
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| Maxlugar |
Yes.
Thankfully he's dead.
And his soul now rests in hell (HP).
Poor Lil' Joey! |
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| icydanger |
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| Mother baby |
The untold story here is Jimi's Dad. He may have not been a rock star but he was kind of like a Gandhi....only a few people ever passed on this planet like him. Check it out.
Wonderful man. |
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| icydanger |
to voodoo ,
i wonder, i saw a pic of mick and jimi, jimi looking so keen on mick, and very insighted serene jimi, it disappeared, then came a page done last year,a thread the 32 anniversary? with many people, keith charlie stu
solo guitar magician |
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| icydanger |
foxy lady, step in stone
dolly
dagger
rainbow bridge voodoo child freedom
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| Mother baby |
Well, those wonderful Father and Son talks between a boy and his son may not mean much today.... poo pooed and all that...leave it ot beaver bullshit and all that...but when little Jimi sat in in the old mans lap....well the rest is history. |
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| Mother baby |
Well he wasn't exactly a normal kid. Was he?
I suppose as far as his dad was concerned he was as normal as any kid I suppose. But no, James Hendrix own parenets were Vaudville....yeah circus tent folks. We love ya Jimi!!!!!!!!!!
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
quote:
icydanger wrote:
to voodoo ,
i wonder, i saw a pic of mick and jimi, jimi looking so keen on mick, and very insighted serene jimi, it disappeared, then came a page done last year,a thread the 32 anniversary? with many people, keith charlie stu
Check all those pix at our Jimi space a'la Rocks Off
Click Ronnie's art to enter!
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| beer |
hey all, i've been on a vacation for the last 2 weeks in seattle. yesterday i went to the EMP and saw the guitar that Hendrix played at woodstock, plust handwritten lyrics by Jimi. tons of cool stuff at the EMP in Seattle. Have missed you all and hope everyones doing good. Later
[Edited by beer] |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
This was the header
Happy 60th birthday Jimi Hendrix..., and Happy 33rd Ya Ya's recording!
Backstage at the Madison Square Garden, November 27, 1969...
Unkown author |
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| icydanger |
thanks voodoo, i know that site 
i found the pic i was thinking of who appeared on my pc yesterday...
it was posted here on 12th of february,
both Mick and Jimi,
coming out of the 7 1/2 club in London
peace |
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