Jimi Hendrix was a very significant and influential musician of the sixties. He was born on November 27, 1942 in Seattle, Washington in the United States of America. Hendrix had taught himself how to play the guitar at age sixteen by listening to records of other famous blues and rock musicians and began to play guitar for high school bands. In 1959, Hendrix enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he had formed his first band, The King Kasuals. He began performing at the “Chitlin Circuit”, a chain of musical entertainment clubs and theaters that were considered “acceptable” for African American performers throughout the span of the 1800s to the 1960s, as a sideman guitarist for many leading musicians such as Jackie Wilson, King Curtis, Little Richard, and several more. …show more content…
In 1966 he formed a band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. Hendrix was approached at a Greenwich Village Nightclub by Chas Chandler who later became his manager. This was when his music career began to boom, as he was influenced to move to London to pursue his career and sign with Track Records. He then formed a band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding. Their debut album, Are You Experienced, was released in 1967 and composed three top ten singles in the United Kingdom. The band's first single, “Hey Joe” was #6 on the UK Chart, and following this came “Purple Haze”. Three years later, the band split and this led Jimi to form Gypsy Sun and the Rainbows, the band that gave his famous Star Spangled Banner performance at Woodstock Music