by André Depienne

Jimi Hendrix learned to play the guitar on his own, before playing in several High-school- bands. In 1959 he joined the US-army, but after being injured in 1961 got laid off again. Under the name of Jimmy James he accom- panied different artists like Sam Cooke, B.B. King, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson or Ike & Tina Turner, just to name a few. In 1965 he starts with his own band „Jimmy James & The Blue Flames“. A year later, Animals-member Chas Chandler discovered Jimi, and took him to London, to introduce him to bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. They then formed the trio “the Jimi Hendrix Expe- rience”. The big success started in 1968, one year after the performance at the “Monterey Pop Festival”, with the double album “Elec- tric Ladyland” and the singles “All along the Watchtower” and “Voodoo Child”. Other big music festivals in his career were the “Woodstock Festival” in 1969 and the “Isle of Wight Festival” a year later. This was also his last performance ever. Jimi Hendrix died on November 27th, 1970 aged only 27. Alcohol, drugs and a huge quantity of sleeping pills were the reason of his early death. Jimi Hen- drix is considered the most important guita- rist in rock history. In the „Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame“ Jimi gets called the „Arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music”.