Virtuoso

It always brings a blast of great sadness when I think of Jimi. He was not only one of the most exciting acts I have ever seen but a genius of a musician. I cannot help wondering if he would still be with us today if things had not been so messed up that day when he was found unconscious. Was there a great panic because of the drugs in the house? Did his girlfriend just go to pieces? Were there phone calls and discussion? Was the flat cleared up before the ambulance was called? Did it take longer than it should have done? Then why did the ambulance take so long to arrive?

They are questions that haunt me. It was such a tragic loss. Jimi was only twenty seven years old. The music he was producing was prolific, original, exquisite and well beyond what anybody was doing then or is doing now. Who knows what magic he would have gone on to weave? His imagination was his only limitation.

We all know the stories of Jimi the entertainer. There was no-one who comes near his showmanship. He took on all the antics of the R&B stars like Johnny Guitar Watson, T-Bone Walker, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters and accentuated them. He played the guitar behind his back, behind his head, between his legs and with his teeth. He played it one handed, with his elbow, smashed it against amps, bounced it off the floor, made love to it and set it on fire. I saw T-Bone Walker playing an amazing set where he played his guitar one handed while walking it around the stage. It was incredible to watch and hear but it did not compare to the excitement of Jimi.

The showmanship alone was sufficient to have made him immortal but that was only the minor part. It was the extraordinary expertise with the guitar that elevated to the heights. He created sounds and invented new methodology that extended the capacity of the instrument beyond its limits. I saw him play riffs and runs on that guitar that blasted your mind while at the same time orchestrating the feedback to provide an electronic chorus that took you into supersonic dimensions. When he brushed the strings with his hand or banged them with his elbow he induced sounds that were extraordinary. When other guitarists used gimmicks such as the wah-wah pedal they were interesting gimmicks. When Jimi used them he mastered them so that they were controlled and integrated. His mind was so sophisticated and complex that he could manipulate all those sounds in his head. He could hear what he wanted to produce and his skills were so great that he could manufacture the sounds that he was hearing in his brain. His mastery was so consummate that he not only played the guitar as an instrument but knew how to create a range of distortions and play them along with it. Nobody else has even come close.

When you add in the distinctive rich voice and song-writing skills you end up with a unique package that places him on a pedestal above all the others. I could, and do, listen to his guitar noodling for hours. I have hundreds of hours of him rehearsing, jamming and just enjoying himself.

At the time of his death Jimi was at a crossroads and was looking to branch out into a series of other directions. All I know is that they would have been extraordinary and we are all the less for being deprived of them.

Four short years was not enough experience!