What Did Hendrix Mean To Me ?

This week a lot of musical press and sources are running sections on Jimi Hendrix. A lot are asking famous musicians and guitarists “What did Jimi mean to you”. Well, as someone who is not famous, but certainly a musician and guitarist I thought I’d ask myself the same question and journal it here.

Unlike most guitarist I found Hendrix very late, so he didn’t really mean that much to me, in fact I never got him at all. I thought his playing was dull, his songs mumbled and his tone “noise”. Now I’m prepared to be shot for admitting that, as to any guitarist that is blasphemy. As times gone by and I’ve matured both as a human and a guitarist I’ve really started to appreciate Hendrix (just like the Beatles). A lot of my earlier criticisms where harsh and ill founded.  Is his playing dull ? no, certainly not, it’s just not flash, which with time I’ve learnt to appreciate is much more of a skill than flash playing. His songs, are they good? yes they are. In my younger form, quality of recordings was a sign of how good a musician you where, this is wrong. This music was recorded a long time ago before the quality of kit that is available today was even dreamt about. If you cut the recordings some slack and pay attention to the songs, I’ve found that they are fantastic, well thought out sections of music with intelligent composition ranging from short simple songs, to complexly written pieces of music with equally complex arrangements. The lyrical content ranges from thought out statements to free form exploration. Some stand out more than others to me. Bold As Love, Spanish Castle Magic, Wait Until Tomorrow, Cross Town Traffic and Hey Joe stand out to me along with Purple Haze, Voodoo Child and Fire which are well know classics. I could go on.The one area I still feel the same about is Jimi’s guitar sound, I still don’t get the buzz that’s around it. I fully understand and enjoy (hell I use them) the pioneering effects Jimi created and used the Leslie/vibe sound, the Octavia, the aggressive fuzz but it’s just not a stand out tone for me, but then if you read my earlier posts Marshall driven sound has never been my amp lust, maybe part of that is down to the low quality of the recordings.

What did Hendrix mean to me? as a guitarist growing up, nothing, nothing at all, however he did help me find a lot of the base skills such as speed and phrasing that used to be a core part of my playing by not wanting to sound like him, now what does he mean for me? A lot. I now enjoy and feel inspired by his songs and his playing, he’s helped open me up to other players such a SRV who I always enjoyed as a player technically but never as a listening pleasure. A key area Jimi has effected me is helping me understand how to make a full sound with a small group. I’m currently playing in a Trio and when I’m playing and writing for the Trio I don’t just focus on the guitar parts, but how to work with the drum, bass and vocal parts to make the sound full and rich, for example how to make a wild drum section controlled and not stand out but fill out an empty sonic space. I’m pleased that I’ve found Jimi from a listening point of view and from a musicians point of view as now that I actually enjoy him I can appreciate him and that influence has helped make me a better player, songwriter and producer of music.