Jimi Hendrix

JIMI HENDRIX d1970. Iconic American guitarist singer-songwriter, famously left-handed & widely considered to be the greatest electric-guitarist in musical history and one of the most influential musicians of his era. After initial success in Europe with his group the Jimi Hendrix Experience, he achieved fame in the United States following his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. He later headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival and the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festivals. His extraordinary innovative style favoured raw overdriven amplifiers with high gain & treble which helped develop the previously undesirable technique of guitar amplifier feedback. Hendrix (along with his friend Eric Clapton) popularized the use of the wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock, which he often used to deliver an exaggerated pitch in his solos particularly with high bends, complex guitar playing and use of legato. As a record producer, he broke new ground in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas. He won many of the most prestigious rock music awards in his lifetime and has been posthumously awarded many more (including being inducted into the US Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall Of Fame in 2005). An English Heritage blue plaque was erected in his name on his former residence at Brook Street London in September 1997. Rolling Stone magazine named him No1 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all-time in 2003. He was mysteriously found dead of asphyxiation (aged just 27) on September 18th 1970 in a London flat, the circumstances of which have never been fully explained .....