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The Jimi Hendrix Experience

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The Jimi Hendrix Experience was the band around the American guitarist and singer Jimi Hendrix, born in 1942 in Seattle. Hendrix began playing guitar at the age of fifteen, joined the army in 1961 and was discharged a year later. He then played on the Chitlin' Circuit and in the backing bands of among others the Isley Brothers and Little Richard. At the end of 1966 he moved to England, where Chas Chandler of The Animals became his manager. Within a few months he formed the Experience, with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell.

Music and breakthrough

The group had three top ten hits in the United Kingdom: Hey Joe, Purple Haze and The Wind Cries Mary. In 1967 Are You Experienced was released, and in the same year Axis: Bold as Love. The performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 made Hendrix famous in the United States. The third album, Electric Ladyland from 1968, was his greatest success and his only number one on the American album chart. Hendrix played at Woodstock in 1969 and at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. He died in London in September 1970, at the age of twenty-seven.

Influence

Hendrix used heavily amplified, overdriven guitar amplifiers and made feedback a musical tool. He was also one of the first guitarists to use effects such as fuzz, Octavia, wah-wah and Uni-Vibe on a large scale, and the first to put stereo phasing effects on record. In this way he turned the electric guitar into a source of electronic sound. In 1992 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Purple Haze by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Notice the chord the song begins with, a dominant chord in which the major and minor third are heard at the same time, and the twisted, distorted guitar sound.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Categories: Artists