A Look at the Newly Released 'Jimi: All is by my Side'
Documentaries most often are historical retellings focused on subjects that captivated an era, sparked a remarkable discovery or simply just pertain to life in general that large audiences can nostalgically identify with. Some of the great musical documentaries of recent times include, ‘The Doors‘, ‘Start me Up‘: about the Rolling Stones, ‘Ray’: depicting the esteemed pianist, and ‘Cash’: portraying the western guitar playing rebel.
The culture of music is often fascinating on many levels but should most importantly emphasize the talented ability for the artist to showcase their penchant for extracting the powers of their craft. Often though the music itself becomes shadowed by the surrounding aspects of the performer’s life such as their rock star personas, scandalous tirades and coping with problematic issues.
The factors that so often play into the seeming demise of a renowned musician or the battles that they confront personally upon having become nearly household names are surely hard for many to understand. And for a documentary’s sake, presenting the entirety of the multitude of dimensions involved in a musician’s skill, career and lifestyle gives a holistic view for which the audience is eager to understand.
For most aspiring musicians, the hard fought efforts leading up to their recognition is steeped in years of challenge. To name just of few, apparent obstalces include playing arduous road shows, signing shammy production deals and coping with the disappointment that can easily confront such self reliant visionaries. Much of why the few musicians who actually persevered to eventually become widely recognized despite such daunting challenges is part of what makes their stories so interesting. Most commonly the characteristic that kept them from deviating professionally from their music was passion.
Those who are well remembered long after they're gone or better yet have continued to make a career for themselves fifty years after first discovering stardom, exemplify this possession of artistic passion. The passion of such individuals to stop at no means in order to fulfill a vision in creating that which they had long developed a talent for is surely a critical aspect of such success.
It must be said that Jimi Hendrix, the most recognized guitar player in history has a fascinating story to be told. The recent documentary covering his life opened in theaters last week and depicts a fully captivating introspective of the person behind the name, while showcasing much of the musical elements that make him so revered in rock and roll history.
The story behind the man is one of a phenomenal talent who took hold of a big opportunity after years of hardly scratching the surface in the music business. Jimi Allen Hendrix had for years sat in merely as a shadow, playing back up gigs for R&B groups during the first half of the 1960’s. The musical scene in the United States was significantly divided along racial lines at the time. Jazz, blues, and R&B were strongly intertwined culturally as African Americans comprised nearly the entire make up of those genre’s artists. A low level performance circuit for these musical styles in New York was something called the ’chitlin’ troupe. Those with talent and desire to monetize their performance ability would pick up small gigs here and there mostly around the city with hopes of one day being signed to a record deal.
During his years of working this effort, Hendricks was consigned to playing the American blues and R&B sounds of the day while the notion of rock and roll was largely an unknown taboo in the United States. On the other side of the Atlantic in Great Britain however, rock and roll had gained mainstream popularity as some of it’s most significant names were just starting to grab a piece of the spotlight.
The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Peter Townshend of the Who, Led Zeppelin and others had been cutting their chops at several of the London hotspot music venues around the neighborhoods of Soho, West End, and Mayfair district.
Chas Chandler, one of the band members from the group called ‘The Animals’ had been working as a producer and made a trip to New York to scout new talent. During his stay in July 1966, a performance at the small but popular club named ‘Café Wha’ in the city’s West Village drew Chas’ attendance. That night Jimi was scheduled to perform. It had only been several months earlier that Jimi had abandoned the soft melodic tone which had been earning him meager compensation as an R&B, jazz backup guitarist before exchanging it for the dark, pulsating vigor of the electric guitar that would soon came to embody his unique style.
Upon witnessing the concert, Chas of the Animals offered to bring the young 23 year old musical defiant to London and submerge him in the enormity of the rock and roll culture that was spawning there. The demeanor of the young Jimi in those days has been described as very sincere and polite. Bringing a non-established, yet glemingly promising young black American guitar player into London where the racial desegregation was beyond that of the United States was a beguiling experience not only for Jimi but those other rock and roll acts who were eager to hear what this gentleman was all about.
On September 26, Jimi’s first night in his new London surroundings, a performance was scheduled for him at the Scotch Club of St. James which lasted in total for about two and a half hours as he sat in with several other scheduled artists. In attendance were reputable rock and roll aspirants including a girl who would become somewhat of a serious girlfriend of his for the next two years.
Jimi played a stellar performance that first night using the cacophonic distortion of his electric guitar to a degree which no one in the audience had ever heard before. Many were not entirely fond of the innocuous tone of his loud, pulsating guitar but nonetheless most at least found something astutely admirable about the musician’s progressive originality. During the show, he demonstrated several of his later to be recognized trademark techniques such as playing behind the neck, plucking strings with his teeth and then several shows later, lighting his guitar on fire.
He had barely started playing original music at that point but rather was adapting a handful of rhythm and blues songs into his uproarious repertoire including the Billy Roberts tune ‘Hey Joe‘. It was very soon after the Scotch Club show that Chas arranged for two other members, one a lightening fast drummer named Mitch Mitchell and a similarly energetic bass player named Noel Redding to create the three piece outfit known as the Experience. Jimi Hendrix and the Experience took the music scene by storm. They were shortly on their way to joining the ranks among Great Britain’s most imminent rock and roll acts of the day.
The three piece band would go on to record three widely distributed albums including ‘Are you Experienced‘(1966), ‘Axis Bold as Love‘(1967), and ‘Electric Ladyland’(1968), each of which spent signifcant time upon the top of the Billboard Charts.
After the last album, the band began going their separate ways. Jimi was certainly the front man of the group where egos were likely being tested, the strains of long sessions, traveling on the road and substance abuse contributed to the factors that likely were wearing on the group’s dynamic. For nearly two more years, Jimmi Hendrix toured Europe and North America as a solo guitar icon grabbing headlining attention as the highest paid performer in the world. Despite his small town California roots ever since first arriving to London in 1966, he from then on thought to call that city his home.
Sadly on September 18, 1970 the twenty seven year old legend was discovered dead of having inadvertently asphyxiated himself during sleep likely upon his body’s natural response to regurgitate a dose of barbiturates that he had taken at a friend‘s apartment.
Despite the stunning brevity of his career, the lasting impact in which he left for the music scene for decades to come is phenomenal. Through archived recordings, studio albums, interviews, stories, photographs and memories, generations to follow have continued to reflect upon the amazing artist that Jimi Hendricks was. In capturing the remarkable story behind such a unique young man, the film 'Jimi: All is by my Side', is a well constructed personification of his life. Appropriately enough, the actor playing his role, Andre 3000 of Outkast, is one whose musical impression has been profound for more than a decade in blending hip hop, rock and originality.