Artist Profile: Jimi Hendrix (part #2)

Artist Profile: Jimi Hendrix (part #2)
By Hunter60

When Jimi returned to New York City after his time running back and forth across the country as a guitarist for a variety of bands on tours he split his time between living with a woman in Harlem to renting cheap hotel rooms near Times Square. Hendrix had known for quite some time that playing behind others in a band situation was not going to help him gain the recognition he craved and that he really wanted to be out in front. However, being broke in New York City, Jimi set out to make some money and managed to score a contract as a session guitarist for PPX Productions. Over the course of eight months, he played on two dozen studio sessions and cut a total of thirty-three tracks mostly behind a less than average singer by the name of Curtis Knight. Most musical historians agree that the only thing that made the records even remotely notable were Jimi's highly expressive and explosive solos.

One of the strangest places you will find a piece of early recorded Hendrix was the atmosphere he added to Jane Mansfield's (the Hollywood actress) track entitled "As the Clouds Drift By". Again, by most accounts, it's not the vocals that make the track worth hearing.

Again, times were tight and tough for Hendrix in New York. He did catch a few touring gigs and worked a reasonably steady gig with King Curtis and the All-Stars, which provided him a small but relatively steady income. However, as was becoming a bit of a standard in the early years of Jimi Hendrix, he survived primarily on the good will of several women that he met and befriended.

In May 1966, while playing his last gig with Curtis Knight and the Squires at the Cheetah Club in New York City, Jimi met the woman who some credit with "launching" Hendrix's career. Twenty-year old Linda Keith (girlfriend of Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards) , a beautiful British model, walked into the club. She was the sort of beautiful woman that turns men's heads. She was an avowed blues fan and music aficionado and has said that at first she barely noticed the band given that there were maybe 40 people in a venue that could seat over 2000. However she took notice of the guitar player. "The way his hands moved up and down on the neck of the guitar was something to watch. He had these amazing hands. I found myself simply mesmerized by watching him play".

It was a strangely fortuitous event for Hendrix; Linda Keith became a tireless champion for him, touting his abilities to any and every one she spoke with. Aside from her love of blues and, as the story goes, the night they met, Linda played rare 45's for Jimi over and over as they shared their mutual love of the genre, she also had a copy of Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" that had been released two weeks prior. It was an album that they returned to over and over and it was an album that had a deep impact on Hendrix. Aside from the powerful lyrical content, Dylan's own faulty and unique singing voice helped Linda convince Jimi that he could sing well enough to front his own band. An argument that has probably been used many times since to convince those somewhat lacking in the vocal department to give it a go.

A few weeks later, Jimi met Richie Havens at the Cheetah Lounge and asked him where he was playing. It was Havens who directed Jimi to "The Village" and "Café Wha" at the heart of McDougal Street. The story goes that Hendrix walked into the "Café Wha" on a Monday night which was their open-mic night, got up and "blew people away" with what he could do with a guitar. He landed a steady gig at "Wha" as soon as walked off the stage. The following day, Jimi walked into a music store, found a bass player and a drummer who were just hanging out and asked them if they wanted to be in his band. That night, the three returned to "Wha" and played as Jimi James and The Blue Flames.

It was during his tenure at Café Wha Hendrix began to tailor his act; freed to the front of a band, he brought out all the tricks that he had seen and practiced during his time touring the Chitlin Circuit. Playing with his teeth, behind his back and working somewhat suggestive moves with his guitar, he gave the impressionable kids on McDougal Street something that they had never seen before. It was also during this time that he began to experiment with a crude version of a fuzz box built for him a member of the Fugs. It was a marriage made in rock and roll heaven; Hendrix, aside from his exceptional talent with a guitar was a self-avowed geek when it came to electronics and recording equipment being fascinated by the sounds he could create by his use of both.

Linda Keith continued to champion Hendrix, bringing Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to a show. According to various stories, Oldham was not impressed by Hendrix, being unable to see past his thrift store clothing. Oldham later said that he was more concerned about the relationship that appeared to be growing between Hendrix and Linda since she was still with The Stones guitarist, Keith Richards. "It was obvious that she knew him , and clear that she knew him well. And she was the girlfriend of my lead guitarist, so that's what I was worried about".

Oldham passed.

Linda later brought Seymour Stein of Sire Records to see Jimi at Café Wha. Stein was impressed by Jimi but later that admiration turned to disinterest when Hendrix began smashing his guitar out of frustration. Stein was brought back on another occasion but again lost interest when he saw an argument between Hendrix and Linda while Jimi was on stage performing.

Stein passed as well.

Beginning to run out of options, Linda happened to run into The Animals bassist, Bryan "Chas" Chandler who was looking to leave the band at the end of their 1966 tour and get into management / production. He was looking for acts to represent at the time and Linda convinced him to come to Café Wha and see Hendrix. Jimi had heard that he was coming to the club that afternoon and he amped his performance accordingly.

At the end of the performance, Chandler asked Jimi about going to England with him, convinced that in the U.K., Hendrix would be a huge star. After a little prodding, Jimi agreed and on the evening of September 23, 1966, he boarded a Pan-Am flight at JFK Airport heading east.

Once in England, Chandler took hold of Jimi Hendrix's future and helped him form the basis for what most critics will say as one of the most amazing power-trios ever in rock; The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Bassist Noel Redding was the first member signed. Originally a guitar player, he was asked if he could play bass. He replied "No, but I'll try". Drummer Mitch Mitchell was added next just in time for them to play their debut gig as an opening act for Johnny Hallyday (The Elvis of France) in Evreux, France. Their 15 minute set was somewhat unremarkable to those who witnessed it, having only time to play "Hey Joe", "Killing Floor" and a handful of other covers. Their next gig, still opening for Hallyday was in Paris at the Olympia Theatre. They played the same set but Jimi added "Wild Thing" as the closer. This time, the audience was brought squarely into the Hendrix camp and went wild with adulation.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience had found their groove.

One week following their Paris gig, Chandler herded the band into the studio for their first recording session where they cut "Hey Joe" as the A-side. When asked what to put on the B-side, Jimi had suggested "Mercy, mercy" but Chandler told him that he needed to write his own music if was serious about becoming a respected musician. In one night, Jimi sat down and wrote "Stone Free" which was placed on back of "Hey Joe". The record became a smash hit for the group.

At a subsequent engagement at the Big Apple in Munich, Jimi took to taking out all the stops. During the performance one evening, Jimi, with the aid of a long guitar cord (shades of Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones), Hendrix wandered into the crowd as he played. As he was climbing onto the stage, he tossed the guitar out in front of him and cracked the neck. Angry, he grabbed the guitar, swung it up over his head and smashed it repeatedly off of the floor. The audience went mad, screaming their approval. Chandler, noticing the response, decided at that moment that he would have Jimi occasionally include that move in his shows. Often times, it was the same guitar that would be patched up over and over again.

Over the course of his time in London, Jimi Hendrix became the darling madman guitarist of the rock and roll set claiming admirers as varied as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Pete Townsend and Paul McCartney. Perhaps one of the most important, although not famous in the light of the previous names, was Roger Mayer. Mayer was an electronics wizard whom, in his spare time, developed effects boxes for guitar players. When he first heard Jimi, he was so impressed that he decided to make devices strictly for Hendrix.

On May 12, 1967, the band released the LP "Are You Experienced" to great acclaim in the UK. The album rose to #2 in the U.K., missing the top spot to The Beatles "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band". Now stars in England and Europe, Chandler faced the task of making Jimi Hendrix and The Experience a world wide phenomenon and that meant by taking Jimi back home and conquering America.

As fortune would have it, in the spring of that year, producer Lou Adler and The Mama's and Papa's John Phillips were in the beginning stages of planning The Monterey Pop Festival that they hoped to bring together later that year in Monterey, California. The idea behind the festival was to showcase musicians of different stripes from all over the world. Andrew Loog Oldham (The Rolling Stones manager) and Paul McCartney were named as the British advisors to the festival and both quickly named The Who and Jimi Hendrix as the two most important British acts that would need to be brought to the festival. Although there was very little money in the gig, the exposure would be vital for Hendrix to crack the American market.

According to writer Charles Cross, a few import copies of "Are You Experienced?" had made their way to the American hipster community and a few tracks were being played on American underground radio, Jimi Hendrix was still an relative unknown in his own country. When Chandler was informed that The Experience had been invited to play at Monterey, he quickly accepted. When he walked into Jimi's apartment and told him that they were headed for California, Hendrix was quiet for a few moments and then said "I'm going home…home to America again."


Next: The rise to superstardom and the tragedy