Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Bio - James Marshal Hendrix

I can't say anything about this man, he was and still is defined completely by his own efforts. I know I miss his presence in this world and some of his music "Little Wing" & "Angel" are two that move me beyond words I'm capable of sharing. He did bring us a bright spark of light on a view of reality that most of us would have missed. He was his art but more than that his art owned him.

The rest of this post is at this link here, on the page I got it from.


Link to Jimi Hendrix main page


James Marshal Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington, on November 27, 1942; an American of African, European, Cherokee Indian and Mexican descent. An unsettled home environment made Jimi spend much of his early years staying with his grandmother, a full-blooded Cherokee Indian, in Canada.

His mother died when Jimi was 15 about the same time as Jimi began to take a serious interest in music and playing the guitar. When he was 12 he got his first electric guitar - the instrument which shaped the next 16 years of his life.

At the age of 16, Jimi was thrown out of school -apparently for holding the hand of a white girl in class - and he played rock'n'roll in teenage bands before voluntarily joining the army at 17.

After 14 months as a paratrooper, learning a lot about falling and flying, he suffered an injury and was discharged. He decided to enter the music field.

The following four years were hard work touring the States playing back-up guitar for various R&B bands including Little Richard, Ike and Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, the Isley Brothers and the late King Curtis among others. The conditions were not suited to his radical temperament and eventually he was drawn to New York 's Greenwich Village where he recorded with the Isley Brothers, Curtis Knight and various other artists.

Then in late 1965 he formed his first band - Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. They worked the Village clubs where he was seen by other musicians who immediately recognized his talent, and word of this young virtuoso reached ex-Animals bassist Chas Chandler. Chas was so impressed after hearing him play he offered to become his manager and persuaded Jimi to accompany him back to England.

England at this stage - late 1966 - was musically ruled by bands such as The Who, The Beatles and Cream with Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck standing alone as the three leading exponents of the electric guitar.... Read the rest please here

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