MUMBAI: Guitar legend Jimi Hendrix strove to sound like multi-genre Black American band ‘Earth Wind & Fire’before he died. The band, formed a year before Hendrix’s death in 1970 impressed the guitar hero with their Soul, R & B, funk and rock sound and ‘best matches the description he gave for the sound he was looking for’, Hendrix’s sister Janie Hendrix said.
On this day 42 years ago rock star Hendrix died in an ambulance on the way to hospital, apparently suffering from a drug overdose. Hendrix, born as Johnny Alan Hendrix on 27 November 1942 is considered the greatest rock guitarist who transformed rock music and expanded its boundaries. He recorded only three studio albums and one live album before he died of an overdose of sleeping pills on 18 September 1970.
Hendrix’s posthumous album ‘People, Hell and Angels’to be released by end of 2012 is part of a 10-year deal between Jimi Hendrix’s estate, managed by Janie and Sony. The album consists of material recorded around the ‘Valleys of Neptune’era. Two live concert movies are also due to be released, including ‘pristine’rarely seen footage from Miami Pop.
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“What he was trying to do was create this new sound. He told my dad: ‘You’re going to be doubly proud of me.’
“He was bringing all these instruments like he did at Woodstock. The way he was describing it in 1969 was what Earth Wind & Fire became. That’s what we would have had: richer, bigger bands with more sounds and more cultures. There would have been a definite evolution,” Janie, who is the CEO of Experience Hendrix LLC, said.
“It was Jimi’s title that he wrote down during the time he was creating the songs. There’ll be 12 songs on the album that haven’t been released – or at least those versions have never been released,” Janie said.
“He’d still be playing music. He’d be doing what he was doing then: encouraging kids to play, buying them guitars. He’d be producing, encouraging – Electric Lady is still a viable studio. Artists are still working in that studio, for the vibe and also because it’s a beautiful studio. When Jimi was alive there were two studios. Now they have five,” Janie stated.
