Jimi Hendrix and the Band of Gypsys
Today’s podcast is dedicated to the apotheosis of one of the most outstanding and memorable guitarists who pawed the way for improvisation in rock music. Almost all modern rock guitarists acknowledge that Jimi Hendrix has remarkably influenced them. Since the time of Hendrix, there has not been a single guitarist in the world who could transform rock music in such a way as he did. In order to understand the great path of the rock star, let us explore his biography. Jimi Hendrix was born in 1942 in Seattle, Washington (Norman, 2020). In his youth, he took the interest in the guitar while having many other hobbies. In the late 1950s, he went to the army, where he found a way to continue his musical studies by participating in an army band (Steinskog, 2019). Service in the army ended due to an accident, after which Hendrix decided to concentrate on music.
He took the pseudonym Jimmy James and, gaining experience, worked as a session musician in the studio. He also participated in the accompanying groups of such popular musicians as Little Richard, Ike and Tina Turner, Isley Brothers, and others. Recorded in search of new directions and ideas, Jimi Hendrix’s album “Band of Gypsys” has had a powerful influence on musicians in rock, funk, rhythm, blues, and even hip-hop for many years.
Even today, the compositions recorded many years ago are popular on the internet. Many guitarists appreciate the musical style presented by Jimi in the Band of Gypsys. For example, the guitar part in the composition “Who Knows” is one of the most famous moments (Hendrix, 2021). The harmonical combination of the bass and drums allows Hendrix to create a unique sounding effect. Please listen to the thirty-seconds fragment of the composition to understand it yourself.
Music Style
Hendrix had a talent for writing unique songs and composing deep lyrics to them. He knew how to make a spectacular performance during the concert, using a diverse arsenal of techniques: from playing with his teeth to spectacular equipment crashes (Coelho, 2003). He completed his performance at the Monterey Festival by dousing his guitar with gasoline and setting it on fire (Norman, 2020). His compositions’ heavy and dense sound was unusual for the rock of that time. Hendrix’s guitar sounded unbridled, unpredictable, breaking into an improvisational flight at every opportunity. Drummer Mitch Mitchell did not restrain himself either, perfectly matching Hendrix’s line of intuitive playing.
Hendrix’s style is instantly recognizable due to the unique, nuanced sound he achieved in various ways. Jimi was left-handed but played a standard guitar with the strings stretched in reverse order. This looked unusual and forced the bridge to make the low frequencies more resonant, creating one of the sides of that unique sound. Additionally, the experiments with electronics, especially in the third album, and individual amplifier settings made his compositions recognizable. Notable are his experiments in the field of psychedelic sound, namely the addition of acid jazz and noise rock techniques.
Jimi Hendrix’s Contribution to the Rock
In each of his performance, Hendrix demonstrates a solid knowledge of harmony, far from its primitive version. The perfect example of his masterful technique is the popular composition called “Purple Haze” (Hendrix 2015). At first, the sounding seems careless and thoughtless, but later the attentive listener can notice the unique manner and style of the music Hendrix creates. You can find a lot of exciting harmonies, both functionally justified and purely coloristic in this composition. This is the influence of acid jazz, but such a powerful use of sonorous, that is, the use of sounds beyond a certain height appears in rock for the first time. At the same time, all the elements are an organic part of the chord “canvas.” This is a unique example in the history of music.
One of the major differentiating features of Hendrix’s style was the allocation of psychedelic rock. The sounds Hendrix extracted from the electric guitar through various parts of his own body took the psychedelic rock, which was primarily acoustic, to a new level. The structures of his compositions deserve special attention. At first glance, it might seem that improvisation is the root of the blues, which greatly influenced Hendrix’s work. However, it is vital to remember that initially, the blues is a rather strictly organized “square,” and its expansion entails many consequences that can lead to a dead end. The musical technique designed by Hendrix showed that improvisation and structure could be combined. Such an approach, later adopted by many guitarists, was the main contribution of Hendrix to the rock culture. In other words, Jimi proved that pure music, even limited by the genre specifications, cannot be constrained in how it can be presented and performed.
References
Coelho, Victor. 2003. The Cambridge Companion to the GUITAR. Cambridge University Press.
Hendrix, Jimi. 2015. “Purple Haze (Live at the Atlanta Pop Festival).” YouTube video.
Hendrix, Jimi. 2021. “Who Knows (Official Audio).” YouTube video.
Norman, Philip. 2020. Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix. Jessica Productions Press Ltd.
Steinskog, E. 2019. “Electric Affinities: Jimi Hendrix, Richard Wagner, and the Thingness of Sound.” In On Popular Music and Its Unruly Entanglements. Pop Music, Culture and Identity, edited by Nick Braae and Kai Hansen, 125-141. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.