jaso Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 Jimi Hendrix never took formal lessons, learned to read music, or cracked open guitar instruction book. Like most players who learn by ear, he was influenced by recordings of other musicians. Based on the recollections of his dad and his girlfriend in London, Kathy Etchingham, I've just posted an article tracing the evolution of the music that influenced Jimi during his boyhood in Seattle and the album collection he amassed after moving to London. One of the best journalistic assignments of my life was co-authoring the book "My Son Jimi" with his dad, Al Hendrix. Al recalled that Jimi's love of music first kicked in during junior high, when he was sharing a room with his cousin Bobby. “They had a record player,” Al explained, “and Bobby remembers that that’s when Jimi became really interested in music. Jimi liked to listen to a 45 of Elvis Presley’s ‘Hound Dog,’ and he liked Little Richards’ 45s. When he was around 14, Jimi went to an Elvis concert to see what it was all about. Jimi liked Elvis, and he sketched a picture of him." That sketch, which Al showed me, included many song titles from the rockabilly era, which gives us good insight into the first songs that thrilled young Hendrix. Al goes on to describe how and why Jimi began playing guitar and the songs he covered in his first band. Finally, he talks about acquiring their first stereo while Jimi was in high school, and how Jimi would watch TV and then jam along to blues records during the commercials. Interesting stuff from someone who was actually there! The second half is devoted to the albums Jimi purchased after he moved to London in 1966 and began making money. Kathy named the stores he shopped at, their home stereo system -- Bang & Olufsen turntable run through a Leak-70 amp and a pair of Lowther 30-watt speakers -- and best of all, Jimi's very wide-ranging purchases of albums. His jazz titles included Wes Montgomery’s A Day in the Life, Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery’s The Dynamic Duo, Jaki Byard’s Freedom Together and Sunshine of My Soul, the Free Spirits’ Out of Sight and Sound with Larry Coryell, Acker Bilk’s Lansdowne Folio, the Roland Kirk Quartet’s Rip, Rig and Panic, and the Charles Lloyd Quartet’s Journey Within. I’ve also included information from when the London collection was sold to the Experience Music Project during the 1990s. If you want check all this out, and see a very detailed listing of the albums Jimi actually owned, it’s all posted here: Jimi Hendrix's Personal Record Collection Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 Awesome! Thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 Amazing info. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Berger Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 Miles and Coltrane are conspicuously absent! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 I spotted a small error and left a comment. Nice piece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Ptah Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 “Jimi would buy records out of curiosity,” Kathy said. “Often he’d go through the record racks, look at something for a moment, and buy it. Then he’d listen to it once and never play it again.” Too bad Hendrix didn't live until this era of online music forums--he would have fit right in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ep1str0phy Posted June 17, 2011 Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 Thanks for the info! I know about his interest in Kirk, but I didn't know about the Byard connection. Byard's music--especially those two albums--that makes so much sense. Byard had and an extremely unusual and prescient sense of album repertoire and construction; I mean, it's jazz music, but a lot of those albums (those and the fittingly titled Jaki Byard Experience) have the programming and sensibility of pop albums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted June 17, 2011 Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 Acker Bilk’s Lansdowne Folio Acker Bilk ?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted June 17, 2011 Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 Acker Bilk’s Lansdowne Folio Acker Bilk ?!? Hopefully it was 'Blue Acker' and 'Horn of Plenty' (both collaborations with Stan Tracey) and not 'Stranger On The Shore'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted June 17, 2011 Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 I'm told Jimi had a storied collection of reels and audience recordings. Any substance to this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umum_cypher Posted June 17, 2011 Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 Acker Bilk’s Lansdowne Folio Acker Bilk ?!? You'd never noticed the Bilkian moments? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted June 17, 2011 Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 (edited) Acker Bilk’s Lansdowne Folio Acker Bilk ?!? Hopefully it was 'Blue Acker' and 'Horn of Plenty' (both collaborations with Stan Tracey) and not 'Stranger On The Shore'. I like 'Stranger on the Shore'. One of my most treasured non-commercial tapes is a 45 minute jam between Jimi and Acker on that very tune. Apparently Jimi expressed a desire to move towards Trad just before he died. He was seen eyeing up banjos on Denmark Street. Edited June 17, 2011 by A Lark Ascending Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted June 17, 2011 Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 On medication, Bev? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Ptah Posted June 17, 2011 Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 Acker Bilk’s Lansdowne Folio Acker Bilk ?!? Hopefully it was 'Blue Acker' and 'Horn of Plenty' (both collaborations with Stan Tracey) and not 'Stranger On The Shore'. I like 'Stranger on the Shore'. One of my most treasured non-commercial tapes is a 45 minute jam between Jimi and Acker on that very tune. Apparently Jimi expressed a desire to move towards Trad just before he died. He was seen eyeing up banjos on Denmark Street. Many have speculated on what direction Hendrix would have taken, if he had lived. This prediction is as valid as any I have read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sneakerkid73 Posted June 24, 2011 Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 Great info & read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted June 25, 2011 Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 Really interesting, thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clifford_thornton Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 No ESP's? Frankly, I'm a bit surprised. Apparently Lennon had all the early ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted June 30, 2011 Report Share Posted June 30, 2011 Really? Where did you read this? Yoko's influence? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Pusey Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 So he had Red Krayolas Parable of the Arable land? a diversion... On the famed Texas International Artists label, home of the 13 Floor Elevators-now that was a seriously obscure and rare choice in the UK at the time! And I thought I was the first one to bring Parable to the UK when I found a stash in Stockholm in 1975, together with half a dozen other albums on the label! Parable was as far out as anything on ESP! And Mayo Thompsons future trajectory after Krayola/International Artists through Corkys Debt,Art and Language/Click clack/ Pere Ubu and so on, is one of rocks least travelled but also quietly influential paths.. And Jimi had it filed together with the Zodiak Cosmic Sounds, hippy dippy astrology narrated by Cyrus Farrar on Elektra? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 No ESP's? Frankly, I'm a bit surprised. Apparently Lennon had all the early ones. I read somewhere that he picked up the 'Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra'. Not sure if it was Vol 1, Vol 2, both and if it was the ESP or domestic Fontana imprint. Must have been bought at Dobells or Colletts I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clifford_thornton Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 He had others, as well, from what I'm told (by Bernard, but on this I trust him). Yoko was very into Patty Waters, of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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