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Jimi Hendrix biography

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Johnny Allen Hendricks atau Jimi Hendrix lahir di King Country Hospital, Seattle, Washington pada 27 November 1942, Ia putra sulung pasangan Alex Hendricks yang Afro-Amerika Meksiko dan Lucille, seorang Indian Cherokee. Nama itu merupakan pemberian ibunya, yang kemudian diubah oleh sang ayah menjadi James Marshall Hendricks pada saat Hendrix kecil berusia 4 tahun. Kedua orangtuanya kemudian berpisah saat Jimi berumur tiga tahun. Ayahnya Alex yang bekerja sebagai tukang sapu, menghidupi keluarganya dengan susah payah.
Jimi kecil pun sering membantu ayahnya menyapu, dan dengan sapu itulah ia pertama kali bergaya bak seorang gitaris. Ia sering menirukan gaya duckwalk khas Chuck Berry. Sang ayah ternyata sering memperhatikan sikap puteranya. Pada 1952, saat Jimi berusia 10 tahun, sang ibu wafat. Hal ini membuat Jimi sangat terpukul dan menjadi anak yang pemurung. Alex sebagai seorang penganut agama yang taat, mengajarinya untuk tabah. Ia sering mengajak Jimi ke gereja dan ikut dalam paduan suara. Tetapi itu rupanya belum cukup untuk menghibur Jimi.
Karena kasihan melihat Jimi yang tak kunjung berhenti bersedih, ayahnya membelikan Jimi sebuah gitar akustik sebagai hadiah ulang tahun ke-12. Gitar itu dibeli dari seorang kawan ayahnya itu seharga 5 dollar. Gitar itu kemudian dibalik susunan senarnya oleh Jimi yang kidal, sehingga ia dapat memainkan gitarnya dengan tangan kiri memetik senar, sedangkan yang kanan menari di atas fretboard. Dengan bermain gitar, Jimi mulai dapat melupakan kepedihan ditinggal ibunya. Apalagi tiga bulan kemudian, Jimi dibelikan lagi sebuah gitar listrik Supro Ozark 160S oleh Alex. Eksplorasi musiknya pun menjadi lebih luas dengan gitar tersebut dan Jimi membentuk bandnya yang pertama Velvetone.
Sepanjang masa remaja itulah Jimi terus berlatih memainkan gitar. Ia sempat dikeluarkan dari sekolahnya Garfield High School gara-gara kebandelannya mengganggu para ceweq. Setelah putus sekolah, ia malah bisa lebih konsen membantu sang ayah. Dan tentunya ia juga lebih banyak mempunyai waktu untuk mengulik gitar. Jimi punya kegemaran mendengarkan album milik musisi blues beken seperti B.B. King, Elmore James dan Muddy Waters, ataupun para rock n' roller seperti Chuck Berry dan Eddie Cochran. Lagu 'Rock And Roll Music' dari Chuck Berry termasuk lagu yang paling sering dibawakan Hendrix. Bahkan kemudian B.B. King memberi penghormatan kepadanya dengan mengabadikan nama ibu Hendrix, Lucille pada gitar Gibsonnya.
Jimi mulai berkarir di musik tahun 1960, saat ia menjadi anggota sebuah band bernama Rocking Kings dan mulai sering manggung di tempat konser seputar Seattle. Walaupun sudah mulai menarik perhatian para pencinta musik, ia tampaknya belum bisa menunjukkan totalitasnya karena setahun kemudian ia malah kena wajib militer dan bergabung dengan angkatan darat di Fort Ord, California. Kemudian ia ditempatkan di 101st Airborne Paratroopers di Fort Campbell, Kentucky sebagai pasukan penerjun. Saat inilah ia bertemu dengan Billy Cox, seorang pemain bass berkulit hitam yang cukup disegani di kalangan musisi blues pada saat itu. Mereka sempat bermain di dalam band angkatan.

 



Early career

After his Army discharge, Hendrix and Army friend Billy Cox moved to nearby Clarksville, Tennessee and undertook in earnest to earn a living with their existing band. Hendrix had already seen Butch Snipes play with his teeth in Seattle and now Alphonso 'Baby Boo' Young the other guitarist in the band, was featuring this gimmick.[50] Not to be upstaged, it was then that Hendrix learned to play with his teeth properly, according to Hendrix himself: "... the idea of doing that came to me in a town in Tennessee. Down there you have to play with your teeth or else you get shot. There’s a trail of broken teeth all over the stage..."[51] They played mainly in low-paying gigs at obscure venues. The band eventually moved to Nashville's Jefferson Street, the traditional heart of Nashville's black community and home to a lively rhythm and blues scene.[52][53] While in Nashville, according to Cox and Larry Lee—who replaced Alphonso Young on guitar—they were basically the house band at "Club del Morocco".[54] Hendrix and Cox shared a flat above "Joyce's House of Glamour".[55] Hendrix's girlfriend at this time was Joyce Lucas. Bill 'Hoss' Allen's memory of Hendrix's supposed participation in a session with Billy Cox in November 1962, in which he cut Hendrix's contribution due to his over-the-top playing, has now been called into question; a suggestion has been made that he may have confused this with a later 1965 session by Frank Howard and the Commanders in which Hendrix participated.[56] After they moved to Nashville, upon learning there was already an established band by the name "The Casuals", they amended their name to the "King Kasuals".

In December 1962, Hendrix visited his relatives in Vancouver, Canada, where as a child he had sometimes lived with his grandmother. It has been claimed that while there, he performed with future members of the Motown band Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, including Tommy Chong (of later Cheech & Chong[57] Chong, however, disputes this ever happened and that any such appearance is a product of Taylor's "imagination".[58] In early 1963, Hendrix returned to the South. For the next two years, Hendrix made a living performing on a circuit of venues throughout the South catering to black audiences. These were venues affiliated with the Theater Owners' Booking Association (TOBA), sarcastically known as "Tough on Black Asses" because the audiences were very demanding. The TOBA circuit was also widely known as the Chitlin' Circuit. In addition to performing in his own band, Hendrix performed with Bob Fisher and the Bonnevilles,[59] and in backing bands for various soul, R&B, and blues musicians, including Chuck Jackson, Slim Harpo, Tommy Tucker, Sam Cooke, and Jackie Wilson. The Chitlin' Circuit was where Hendrix refined his style. fame).
Feeling he had artistically outgrown the circuit and frustrated at following the rules of bandleaders, Hendrix decided to try his luck in New York City and in January 1964 moved into the Hotel Theresa in Harlem,[60][61] who became his girlfriend) and the Allen twins, Arthur and Albert (now known as Taharqa and Tunde-Ra Aleem). The Allen twins became friends and kept Hendrix out of trouble in New York. The twins also performed as backup singers (under the name Ghetto Fighters) on some of his recordings, most notably the song "Freedom". Pridgeon, a Harlem native with connections throughout the area's music scene, provided Hendrix with shelter, support, and encouragement. In February 1964, Hendrix won first prize in the Apollo Theater amateur contest. Hoping to land a gig, Hendrix made the club circuit and sat in with various bands. Eventually, Hendrix was offered the guitarist position with The Isley Brothers' back-up band and he readily accepted. where he soon befriended Lithofayne Pridgeon (known as "Faye",

 

 

Guitar

Fender Stratocaster

Hendrix owned and used a variety of guitars during his career. However, his guitar of choice (and the instrument that became most associated with him), was the Fender Stratocaster. He started playing the model in 1966 and thereafter used it prevalently in his stage performances and recordings.
Hendrix bought many Stratocasters and gave some away as gifts. The original sunburst Stratocaster that Hendrix burnt at the Astoria in 1967, and that he kept as a souvenir, was given to Frank Zappa by a Hendrix roadie at the 1968 Miami Pop Festival; Zappa assumed it was the one Hendrix had played there.[168]
Hendrix used right-handed guitars, turned upside down and restrung for left-hand playing.[169] This had an important effect on his guitar sound: because of the slant of the Strat's bridge pickup, his lowest string had a bright sound while his highest string had a mellow sound, the opposite of the Stratocaster's intended design.[170] Heavy use of the tremolo bar necessitated frequent tuning; Hendrix often asked the audience for a "minute to tune up", as heard on many live bootlegs of his performances.
In addition to Stratocasters, Hendrix was also photographed playing Fender Jazzmasters, Duosonics, two different Gibson Flying Vs, a Gibson Les Paul, three Gibson SGs, a Gretsch Corvette he used at the 1967 Curtis Knight sessions and miming with a right-strung Fender Jaguar on the "Top Of The Pop's" TV show, as well as several other brands.[171] Hendrix borrowed a Fender Telecaster from Noel Redding to record "Hey Joe" and "Purple Haze",[172] used a white Gibson SG Custom for his performances on the Dick Cavett show in the summer of 1969, and the Isle of Wight film shows him playing his second Gibson Flying V. While Jimi had previously owned a Flying V that he'd painted with a psychedelic design, the Flying V used at the Isle of Wight was a unique custom left-handed guitar with gold plated hardware, a bound fingerboard and "split-diamond" fret markers that were not found on other 60s-era Flying Vs.
On December 4, 2006, one of Hendrix's 1968 Fender Stratocaster guitars with a sunburst design was sold at a Christie's auction for USD$168,000.[173]

Other instruments

Hendrix owned a Coral electric sitar that later wound up in the possession of Peter Frampton, who used it on tour during David Bowie's 1987 world tour[174].

Amplifiers and effects

Hendrix was a catalyst in the development of modern guitar effects pedals. His high volume and use of feedback required robust and powerful amplifiers. For the first few rehearsals he used Vox and FenderJim Marshall, and they proved perfect for his needs. Along with the Stratocaster, the Marshall stack and amplifiers were crucial in shaping his heavily overdriven sound, enabling him to master the use of feedback as a musical effect, and he created a "definitive vocabulary for rock guitar".[175] amplifiers. Sitting in with Cream, Hendrix played through a new range of high-powered guitar amps being made by London drummer turned audio engineer
While his mainstays were the Arbiter Fuzz Face and a Vox wah-wah pedal,[175] Hendrix experimented with guitar effects as well. He had a fruitful association with engineer Roger Mayer who later went on to make the Axis fuzz unit, the Octavia octave doubler and several other devices based on units Mayer had created or tweaked for Hendrix. The Japanese-made Univibe, designed to simulate the modulation effects of the rotating Leslie speaker, provided a rich phasing sound with a speed control pedal, and is heard on the Band of Gypsys track "Machine Gun", which highlights use of the univibe, octavia and fuzz face pedals.
The Hendrix sound combined high volume and high power, feedback manipulation, and a range of cutting-edge guitar effects. He was also known for his trick playing, which included playing with only his right (fretting) hand and using his teeth or playing behind his back and between his legs. Hendrix had large hands and characteristically used his thumb to fret bass notes, leaving his fingers free to play melodic lines on top. A clear demonstration of this thumb technique can be witnessed in the Woodstock video; during the song Red House there are closeups of Hendrix's fretting hand.


Discography

Main articles: Jimi Hendrix discography and Jimi Hendrix posthumous discography

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Jimi Hendrix/Band of Gypsys

Posthumous studio albums

 

 

Death


The two buildings which composed the Samarkand Hotel. Hendrix died in one of the two basement apartments which were accessed from one of the two exterior steps in front of the buildings.
Early on September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix died in London. He had spent the latter part of the previous evening at a party and was picked up at close to 03:00 by girlfriend Monika Dannemann and driven to her flat at the Samarkand Hotel, 22 Lansdowne Crescent, Notting Hill. From autopsy data and statements by friends about the evening of September 17, it has been estimated that he died sometime after 03:00, possibly before 04:00, but also possibly later, though no estimate was made at the autopsy, or inquest.[133]
Dannemann claimed in her original testimony that after they returned to her lodgings the evening before, Hendrix, unknown to her, had taken nine of her prescribed Vesparax sleeping pills. The normal medical dose was a half to one tablet as stated in the literature, but Hendrix was unfamiliar with this very strong Belgian brand. According to surgeon John Bannister, the doctor who initially attended to him, Hendrix had asphyxiated in his own vomit, mainly red wine which had filled his airways.[134] Bannister's statement was made in January 1992 to Harry Shapiro, co-author of Electric Gypsy, a book which also featured accusations of malpractice by Monika Dannemann in regards to Bannister's not performing a tracheotomy on Hendrix. He appears to have been using the amount of wine in his system as a reason for not performing a tracheotomy. He was reprimanded for two counts of medical malpractice, and struck off the medical register on 28 April 1992 for fraud.[135] No one else at the time, the other two doctors, the ambulance men, or the police mentioned wine. The only mention of wine was by Monika much earlier, in Electric Gypsy (which Bannister had read), and that Hendrix had drunk some with food earlier that evening and also by Harvey at his, again, much earlier party, which were both several hours prior to death. The autopsy found very little alcohol in his system. The autopsy never mentioned wine only vomited matter.[136]
Until her death, Dannemann publicly claimed that she had only discovered that her lover had been sick at 11.00 a.m., but he was breathing, though unconscious and unresponsive (The ambulance was called at 11:18 and arrived 11.27). And that Hendrix was alive when placed in the back of the ambulance at approximately 11:30, and that she rode with him on the way to the hospital;.[137]
The ambulance crew later denied she was even there; additionally, Dannemann's comments about the timing of some events that morning often differed in places, varying from interview to interview.[138]
Police and ambulance statements reveal that there was no one but Hendrix in the flat when they arrived at 11:27 a.m., and not only was he dead when they arrived on the scene, but was fully clothed and had been dead for some time.[139]
Later, Dannemen claimed that former road managers Gerry Stickels and Eric Barrett had been present before the ambulance was called.[citation needed] and had removed some of Hendrix's possessions, including some of his most recent messages. Lyrics written by Hendrix, which were found in the apartment, led Eric Burdon to make a premature announcement on the BBC-TV program 24 Hours that he believed Hendrix had committed suicide. Burdon often claimed he had been telephoned by Dannemann after she discovered that Jimi failed to wake up.[140]
In 1996, Monika Dannemann committed suicide shortly after being found guilty of contempt of court for repeating a libel against Kathy Etchingham, who had been a girlfriend of Jimi's in the 1960s.[141]

Allegations of murder

A former Animals "roadie", James "Tappy" Wright, published a book in May 2009 claiming Hendrix's manager, Mike Jeffery, admitted to him that he had Hendrix killed because the rock star wanted to end his management contract.[142] John Bannister, one of the doctors who attended to him in 1970 stated in 2009 that it "sounded plausible".[143] Bannister was struck off the Medical register in 1992 for fraud.[143] In 2011 Bob Levine, Wright's long term business associate and Mike Jeffery's assistant manager in N.Y., said he knows that Wright made up these stories to sell his book, that Jeffery didn't have insurance on Hendrix, but that he merely countersigned the Warner Bros. policy that Warner's had taken out as standard practice.[144]
"There was a freak storm across Mallorca and all the phone lines were down. Somebody told Mike that Jimi had been trying to phone him. The first call that got through was to say Jimi was dead. Mike was terribly upset at the thought of Jimi not being able to get through to him." – Trixie Sullivan, secretary/assistant for Mike Jeffery[145]

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