Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix’s 1968 album Electric Ladyland became his only number-one record on the US Billboard 200, capping a brief career that reshaped the sound and technical vocabulary of rock guitar. Born Johnny Allen Hendrix in Seattle on November 27, 1942, he later became known as James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix. A guitarist, singer, and songwriter, he drew from American rock and roll and electric blues while using volume, feedback and effects to create sounds that had rarely been heard in mainstream rock.

Hendrix began playing guitar at 15. He enlisted in the US Army in 1961 and was discharged the following year, then moved to Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked the Chitlin’ Circuit. That period led to backing-band work with the Isley Brothers and Little Richard, whom he continued to work with through mid-1965. He also played with Curtis Knight and the Squires.

In late 1966, former Animals bassist Chas Chandler brought Hendrix to England and became his manager. Hendrix soon formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. The group quickly scored three UK top-ten singles, “Hey Joe,” “Purple Haze” and “The Wind Cries Mary.” Hendrix reached a much wider American audience following his 1967 Monterey Pop Festival performance. The Experience released three studio albums, culminating in Electric Ladyland; Hendrix’s final studio album with the band was also his most commercially successful release.

Hendrix favored overdriven amplifiers played at high volume and gain, and helped popularize amplifier feedback as a deliberate musical tool rather than an unwanted noise. His recordings made extensive use of effects including fuzz distortion, Octavia, wah-wah and Uni-Vibe, and he was the first musician to use stereophonic phasing effects on record. In 1969 he headlined Woodstock, then appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. At the time, he was described as the world’s highest-paid rock musician.

Hendrix died in London on September 18, 1970, from barbiturate-related asphyxia, aged 27. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 as a member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The Hall of Fame has called him “arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music.”