Quote Blog Oct 16


210-330 since friday

Leading up to this event, Hendrix had encouraged bassist, Noel Redding, to quit his band, Jimi Hendrix The Experience. This was the end of Hendrix's trio which had brought him all the way to the Woodstock Festival of 1969. After the destruction of The Experience, Hendrix attempted to put together a few different bands as well as record a new album. It was stated that Hendrix complied about every group he had put together stating that, "they are the only band that does not get better after rehearsal" (255).  Hendrix played a total of one festival and one street concert throughout the year of 1969. Experiencing a drought, Hendrix became depressed. To add onto his depression, Hendrix felt rushed to start producing more music. Earlier in the year, he and the Experience traveled to Africa where Hendrix's forehead had been read. The reading stated that Hendrix was a well loved person surrounded by many people, and that he was to die soon. He became determined to find something better than his last band. He found nothing until finding musicians Billy Cox and Buddy Miles. Hendrix knew Cox from his army days seven years prior. The three rehearsed a total of twice before being the closing band for the 1969 Woodstock Festival. Hendrix was announced as the Jimi Hendrix Experience Band. Once on stage, he changed these details and called his band the Band Of Gypsies. He then stated the quote that I have below about staying basic as they had only rehearsed twice prior. He then played a 16 song set, making it one of the longest sets in his career.

This is what lead Hendrix to be so famous and so influential of a musician. Unlike other musicians at the time, he just did what he felt was best when he felt up to the task. Not a lot of musicians can pull this off, but when they can, the results are unbelievable. Hendrix had natural talent. Everything that he learnt came from traveling, playing, and watching. Not to mention, he was very in touch with himself and what he wanted in his life. This is essential in order to make solid goals and be able to work towards them. Most importantly, he relied on roots music to make his own music possible. Roots music is strongly at the basis of all of the best music. For Hendrix, Blues was the roots music that he relied on. He then applied his own approaches and those of the people that he had seen around him to that style and created The Experience and The Band Of Gypsies.


"... I mean, its a first ray of the new rising sun, anyway, so we might as well start from the earth, which is rhythm, right? Can you dig that?" (Cross 270)

This quote strongly relates to me due to my last two lessons with my guitar teacher Tomo Fujita. Recently Tomo has had me play a few jazz and blues solos over a set of changes that he has handed to me. I took each of these with my own style and ideas. After completing each solo, Tomo told me that all of my ideas were okay, but needed to be strongly refined. When asking him what to do to refine my ideas, his answer was very much similar to what Hendrix had said in his quote above. Tomo stated that I must start from the ground up and build my style from there. He told me that I need to listen too and master the roots of each of the styles that I would like to incorporate into my music. When it comes to blues, I listen to a lot of old and new blues. My main inspirations however come from more modern blues musicians, giving my style more of a modern sound. However, my modern style needs refining as it lacks the origins of true roots blues. Since then I have been pouring over old BB King recordings and have found that my playing has been changing for the better! Here is a video of Hendrix playing the National Anthem at Woodstock 69'





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