Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix
Hendrix in 1968
Background information
Birth name	Johnny Allen Hendrix
Also known as	James Marshall Hendrix
Born	(1942-11-27)November 27, 1942 Seattle, Washington, US
Died	September 18, 1970(1970-09-18) (aged 27) London, England
Genres	Rock psychedelia blues R&B
Occupations	Musician songwriter singer
Instruments	Guitar vocals
Years active	1962–1970
Labels	Sue PPX RSVP Track Barclay Polydor Reprise Capitol
Formerly of	Curtis Knight and the Squires Jimmy James and the Blue Flames The Jimi Hendrix Experience Band of Gypsys
Website	jimihendrix.com
Signature

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, songwriter and singer. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music."^[1]

Born in Seattle, Washington, Hendrix began playing guitar at age 15. In 1961, he enlisted in the US Army, but was discharged the following year. Soon afterward, he moved to Clarksville, then Nashville, Tennessee, and began playing gigs on the chitlin' circuit, earning a place in the Isley Brothers' backing band and later with Little Richard, with whom he continued to work through mid-1965. He then played with Curtis Knight and the Squires.

Hendrix moved to England in late 1966, after bassist Chas Chandler of the Animals became his manager. Within months, he had achieved three UK top ten hits with his band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience (with its rhythm section consisting of bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell): "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze", and "The Wind Cries Mary". He achieved fame in the US after his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. His third and final studio album, Electric Ladyland (1968), became his most commercially successful release and his only number one album on the US Billboard 200 chart. The world's highest-paid rock musician,^[2] Hendrix headlined the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970.

Hendrix was inspired by American rock and roll and electric blues. He favored overdriven amplifiers with high volume and gain, and was instrumental in popularizing the previously undesirable sounds caused by guitar amplifier feedback. He was also one of the first guitarists to make extensive use of tone-altering effects units in mainstream rock, such as fuzz distortion, Octavia, wah-wah, and Uni-Vibe. He was the first musician to use stereophonic phasing effects in recordings. Holly George-Warren of Rolling Stone commented: "Hendrix pioneered the use of the instrument as an electronic sound source. Players before him had experimented with feedback and distortion, but Hendrix turned those effects and others into a controlled, fluid vocabulary every bit as personal as the blues with which he began."^[3]

Hendrix died in London from barbiturate-related asphyxia in September 1970, at the age of 27.