Many people claim Jimi Hendrix to be the greatest guitarist ever to pick up the instrument. Undoubtedly, he was one of the most creative and innovative rock musicians of all time. He is well-known for his ability to create unforeseen sonics with his instrument, as well as for his extraordinary showmanship. He was able to express his emotions into the music in such way nobody had ever done before. His superstar carrer lasted only four years but his impact on a whole genre of rock & roll music is huge. He was born Johny Allen Hendrix on the 27th of November, 1942 in Seattle, WA. He grew up with his mother beacuse Jimi’s father Al was fighting in the WWII in Europe. His mother‘s poverty and the fear of her husband’s life lead her to alcoholism. Young Jimi moved to his relatives in California and lived there until 1946, when his father returned from the war. He subsequently changed boy‘s name to James Marshall Hendrix and became fanatically religious, ineffectively trying to bring his son to religious faith, too. Jimi obtained his first guitar at the age of 16. He learned to play it while listening to the southern blues records. It has to be mentioned that he was left-handed and was forced to play the right-hand guitar, but he didn’t have any difficulties at all. At the age of 17 Jimi joined the 101st airborne divison and was trained to be a paratrooper. In those times he formed his first band along with his fellow soldier. He was honorably discharged from the army because of the broken ankle. After that he moved to New York and began his musical career. Hendrix was performing as a back-up guitarist with some well-known blues outfits, but his talents and theatral showmanship couldn’t fully develop until he became a soloist and performed alone. That happened after the Animals bassist Chas Chandler discovered him and convinced him to move to London in September 1966. Hendrix founded his own group dubbed the Jimi Hendrix Experience and released his solo debut Are You Experienced? (1967). He immediately became a superstar, unforgetable singles Hey Joe, Purple Haze and The Wind Cries Mary all reached Top 10 in UK charts and his live performances at the Monterey pop and Woodstock festivals became legendary. He played his guitar behind his back, over head, with his teeth and he even set it on fire while praying to the guitar gods who gave him such an unbelievable musical skills.

He was also the first one to smash his guitar to shreds, followed by many other rock musicians including Nirvana. Everyone from music moguls to teenage kids were taken by Hendrix‘ experimentation. He managed to release only two another full-length albums, called Axis: Bold As Love and the double-LP Electric Ladyland, before he died at the age of 27 in 1970. His death itself is covered by a mystery. The wide-spread version of his death is the drug overdose but the truth may be that he died after and allergic reaction caused by a sleeping pills, suffocated on his own vomit. The fact whether he commited suicide or not has never been confirmed.

Hendrix spent a lot of time in the recording studio experimenting and producing material he never released while he was alive. This along with some other live performances were released in countless posthumous compilations. The material was also the focus of a great controversy because producer Alan Douglas took control of these projects, re-recorded and modified many of the original records with aditional musicians. Lastly, after a lenghty legal dispute, the rights to Jimi’s estate, including all of his original recordings, were returned to Al Hendrix, guitarist’s father, in 1995. Then Al began to get Hendrix‘ legacy in order, and reissued all of his original works with greatly improved, remastered sound.

	Tento článok bol vytlačený zo stránky https://referaty.centrum.sk

Jimi Hendrix biography