Jimi Hendrix — Purple Haze

Johnny Allen Hendrix was born November 27, 1942, in Seattle, Washington. Johnny is better known across the planet as Jimi, as in Jimi Hendrix, one of the most extraordinary guitarists in rock history. His style helped to inaugurate and define a new era in rock music, namely the psychedelic 1960’s

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - the name of his band - recorded, Are You Experienced? (1967), Axis: Bold as Love (also 1967), and Electric Ladyland (1968, including Hendrix’s version of Bob Dylan’s tune, «All Along the Watchtower»). The single «Purple Haze» from Are You Experienced remains one of rock music’s classics. If one examines the Purple Haze guitar tab, they’ll discover why he is considered a guitar genius. Jimi Hendrix’s guitar music was made known world-wide through his appearance at Woodstock in 1969 and his inclusion on the Woodstock album.

Hendrix combined well-known guitar styles (which he had mastered in his earlier years) into, possibly, the most unique and creative approach to music making in the passed half century. The Jimi Hendrix guitar tablature of his solos and songs is a veritable library of guitar lessons. The performance of him and his band are truly inspired and exhibit many instances of virtuosity. Musicians everywhere study his approach to the guitar and to music. He expanded the range and vocabulary of the electric guitar into areas no musician had ever before ventured.

Jimi, like Paul McCartney, was a left-handed guitar player. Jimi Hendrix’s guitar solo, using a fuzz-guitar on the «The Star-Spangled Banner» at Woodstock has become a famous sound bite.

According to the Rock and Roll hall of Fame website: «At the very least his creative drive, technical ability and painterly application of such effects as wah-wah and distortion forever transformed the sound of rock and roll. Hendrix helped usher in the age of psychedelia with his 1967 debut, «Are You Experienced?» and the impact of his brief, but meteoric, career on popular music continues to be felt.

Continuing, «More than any other musician, Jimi Hendrix realized the fullest range of sound that could be obtained from an amplified instrument. Many musical currents came together in his playing. Free jazz, Delta blues, acid rock, hardcore funk, and the songwriting of Bob Dylan and The Beatles all figured as influences. Yet, the songs and sounds generated by Hendrix were original, otherworldly and virtually indescribable. In essence, Hendrix channeled the music of the cosmos, anchoring it to the earthy beat of rock and roll.»

Hendrix performed his last concert at the Isle of Fehmarn, Germany, on September 6, 1970 (though he joined Eric Burdon and War on stage on September 16 at Ronnie Scott’s in London). On September 18, he died from suffocation, having inhaled vomit due to barbiturate intoxication.