Jimi Hendrix Experience?

[SFX]

jees, did I fail to mention my low opinion of Mitch Mitchell was a personal opinion?
Tony Williams from that era drove me up the wall as well -- busy, busy, busy

i liked the other usual icons of that time: Baker, Bonham, Moon
back then i really like Jim Capaldi of Traffic -- so maybe that sort of tasty minimal fills is more to my taste, and, of course Kreutzmann, more than Hart.

just another unreasonable personal opinion

Sorry wrench, but it is an unreasonable opinion!
Tony Williams was probably the greatest, most original drummer of all time. Listen to "Believe It"
with Allan Holdsworth or his work with Miles (as a teenager!)He may be busy, but like Holdsworth on guitar, he's not noodling, he's just playing stuff that may be too sophiticated for some peole.

yeah, sophisticated, unlike my typing skills. But really, taste in music is one thing, but saying great musicians are bad players is just incorrect.

[Morgaxx]

If any of you have played in a live three piece, any style, then you understand how 3 is way less than 4. To fill out the sound, having a drummer that is musical (jazzy?) is a definate plus. Listening to Experience records you can hear the drums as a third 'instrument' not just as a metronome(Ringo?).

The bass player(Noel) was really a guitarist having a go at it.

As to Jimi's live playing being sloppy/out of tune etc... true (another reason to have a capable drummer). Perhaps he did embody the times in this regard. You know long messy hair and down with the establishment etc... However Jimi could play. I have a record, I think called 'Cosmic Turnaround' (cant be arsed to look thru the crates to find/check) that is a collection of tracks on which Jimi was the session rythm guy. These were well know blues acts, and if Jimi was a hack he would not have been hired.

I really enjoy listening to any Hendrix and admire his 'trips'(he nailed the feel of his drugs) which is what they were. How many people use the sound of their constant, drug induced, gum chewing in music. Then there were the terribly drunk and horribly done sessions with Jim Morrison etc... Yuck! (funny though). Alchahol and music only work for a select few.

Like it or leave it, he gave everybody, musician or not, something to think about.

Zep- get rid of Plant and I might enjoy more.
Cream- too may Cream songs sound like too many Cream songs eg. White Room vs The ballad of ???? (cant remember)
Rush- all very talented and nice guys eh.

[Beardedone]

he was just a man, not a god

True he wasn't. But he was an icon for many of us. I am saying that at the time he was considered by many of us kids to be pretty close to a deity. I was sixteen when he died and I still recall that time when a whole bunch of us so called macho guitar weildimg guys crying our eyes out at the news. It was only three short years of stardom but that was more than enough time to create a legacy. Talent is talent and Jimi had it spades in spite of the drugs, alcohol and business pressures. I am sure Hendrix' innate talent would have made him successful anytime.

[wrench45us]

yeah, sophisticated, unlike my typing skills. But really, taste in music is one thing, but saying great musicians are bad players is just incorrect.

i stand corrected
i bow to your insightful analysis

there are many things that are good (and good for me) that i find distasteful

but you are right talent and skill can/should be differentiated from personal opinion

and apparently i fail to appreciate sophisticated drum work. tenor and alto sax, piano, guitar i seem to be much more in tune with consensual opinion. apparently appreciating advanced drum work is a character flaw.

i do think the note about a drummer's function in a 3 piece vs. a 4 piece is useful in this discussion and makes my unreasoned response even more unreasonable.

[mayan]

On a side issue, Wrench...I do agree with you about Bill Kreutzman. Took about 20 years off from the Dead and then started listening critically to his work. I'm not a drummer but he blew me away, I think he fueled the band...Whatever folks think of the Dead, I think Kreutzman is yo way underappreciated.

[wrench45us]

well Kreutzmann was incredibly crisp, and functioned as backbone holding that band together as a reliable force.

Tony Williams was also incredibly crisp, but busy, often he played as a sort of lead instrument -- not solo, but lead instrument

Mitch Mitchell not so crisp, but busy in the space provided and pushed the beat ahead on the most frantic recordings - i think very appropriately pushing -- it was the manner that bothered me

just my observation

[View]

I personally dug mitch mitchell. His drumming had a wild tone to it that was really visceral. Just check out the Hendrix classic "I don't live today" as an example. Terrific drum work.

To each his own, I guess.

I think Hendrix out of tune on occasion added rather than subtracted from his sound especially in the live recordings.

In terms of his voice, this also can be viewed as and asset when you consider the innovation he brought to music. If he had a great R&B or blues voice we may never have heard about him cuz he would've just stayed a side man playing mickey gigs.

His voice and guitar playing were raw and unconventional and that gives it the edge that propelled him into greatness IMHO.

[geoffrey]

I am enjoying this thread immensely since I play in a Hendrix cover band. Some observations about Jimi and the band. Someone mentioned tuning problems. Those only happened live and were the plague of most bands of that era. ( The Dead were especially notorious for lengthy tuning pauses.) Jimi's playing is second to none! Think about this.. He could play left or right handed, upside down or right side up, strung standard or backwards(like some old blues guys, better for bends) javascript:emoticon(':o')
Effects are also a legacy of Hendrix. He was the main catalyst for the wah, fuzz, flanging, phasing, etc. becoming part of rock music. He single handedly brought the Strat back from near oblivion. (Fender themselves said so once.)
Listen to songs he plays bass on, he is as good a bassman as guitarist. (Watchtower is one example)
Non-standard tuning is another thing he made popular. He usually tuned down a 1/2 step, but sometimes a whole step.
I saw Joe Satriani recently and he said that almost all modern techniques of guitar could be heard, for instance, in Machine Gun. He cited it as his most influential Hendrix song and Hendrix as his most influential guitarist.
Mitch Mitchell is an awesome drummer! Whomever said otherwise should go back and listen again. I agree Noel Redding is not the best bass player in the world. One small comfort there is that many of his bass lines were created by either Jimi himself or Chas Chandler(Animals bassist)
I also seriously doubt that Rush would claim they were better than JHI or Cream for that matter. Whaddya you folks think?
'nuff said for now...
Peace,
Geoff

[paradiddle]

Tony Williams was also incredibly crisp, but busy, often he played as a sort of lead instrument -- not solo, but lead instrument

Right on! He played off the melodies a lot and really going for textures on the drums. He anticipated a lot on the drums. Definitely a legend forever!

[fishbowl.tucson.az]

MMW 3rded

anyone seen em play live? i dunno if he does it every gig but the bassist did this crazy solo what kind of turns into a druum solo cos he's hitting the bass like a drum... truly amazing stuff

If you like that you'll goape when you see Victor L. Wooten with Béla Fleck.