Musicians - Jimi Hendrix

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	Musicians - Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and cultural icon. Widely lauded by music fans and critics alike, Hendrix is arguably the greatest and most influential electric guitarist in rock music history.

Mostly self-taught on the instrument, the left-handed Hendrix played a right-handed guitar turned upside down and re-strung to suit him. As a guitarist, he built upon the innovations of blues stylists such as B.B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, T-Bone Walker, and Muddy Waters, as well as those of rhythm and blues and soul guitarists like Curtis Mayfield. Hendrix's music was also influenced by jazz; he often cited Rahsaan Roland Kirk as his favorite musician. Most importantly, Hendrix extended the tradition of rock guitar: although previous guitarists, such as The Kinks' Dave Davies, Jeff Beck, and The Who's Pete Townshend, had employed techniques such as feedback, distortion and other effects as sonic tools, Hendrix was able to exploit them to a previously undreamed-of extent, and made them an integral part of his compositions.

As a record producer, Hendrix was an innovator in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas. Hendrix was notably one of the first to experiment with stereo and phasing effects during the recording process. Hendrix was also an accomplished songwriter whose compositions have been performed by countless artists.

Names

Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix in Seattle, Washington, the son of Al Hendrix and Lucille Jeter Hendrix. As a toddler and young boy he was known as Buster, a family nickname. At age three, his father, after returning from military service during World War II, legally renamed him James Marshall Hendrix. As a school age boy and young adult, he was simply known as Jimmy or James. In his early career, Hendrix often used the stage name Jimmy James. He did not adopt the moniker Jimi until after his discovery in late 1966, although most writings refer to him as Jimi throughout the timeline of his life for purposes of consistency.

Family origins

Jimi Hendrix was of mixed African American, European, and Cherokee Native American descent.

Both of Jimi's paternal grandparents were vaudeville performers from the midwest who settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, where Al Hendrix was born. Jimi was close to his paternal grandmother Nora Rose Moore, the daughter of a Cherokee father and a mulatto mother, who instilled in him a strong sense of pride about his Native American ancestry, which would later become a recurring theme in his music. Jimi's paternal grandfather, Bertran Philander Ross Hendrix, was the mulatto son of a former slave and the white merchant who once owned her. Bertran met Nora Moore on the vaudeville circuit in Chicago. Al Hendrix (June 10, 1919–April 17, 2002) was the youngest of their four children.

Jimi's maternal grandfather, Preston Jeter, was also the mulatto son of a former slave and slave owner. He left Richmond, Virginia at the turn of the century after witnessing a lynching, and settled in the Seattle area. In 1915, he married Clarice Lawson, a woman half his age who was of mixed Cherokee and slave descent. Lucille Jeter was the youngest of their eight children.

Lucille was sixteen years old when she met Al Hendrix through a mutual friend - he was twenty. After a few casual dates, their relationship escalated when Al was hospitalized with a hernia and Lucille volunteered at the hospital to help care for him. The same week that Lucille realized she was pregnant with Jimi, Al received his draft notice. Three days after they were married, he shipped off to the U.S. Army. It would be three years before Al would see his son for the first time.

Lucille endured a number of personal and financial hardships while her husband was away: her father Preston died months after Jimi was born; nearly two years passed before any of Al's military pay reached her; and a fire destroyed the Jeters' uninsured home. She also led an untamed lifestyle of drinking and partying as a waitress in the clubs of Jackson Street, while care of little "Buster" slipped more and more into the hands of Lucille's mother Clarice and family friends Dorothy Harding, Delores Hall, and Freddie Mae Gautier. When Al returned from his military service, Jimi was living with a church friend of the Jeter family in Berkeley, California. His caregiver offered to keep the boy, but after some internal debate, Al brought his son back to Seattle. He changed Jimi's name from Johnny Allen to James Marshall because he felt the name Johnny referred to John Page, a longshoreman whom Lucille became involved with while Al was away. Despite her parental neglect and infidelity, Al decided to stay married to Lucille.

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Musicians - Jimi Hendrix

Names

Family origins

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