80 years of Jimi Hendrix | The Guitarist Who Changed Lives

Olympic Studios, London, January 1967. Since entering the room, Jimi Hendrix remains in his corner, completely speechless. “Then once we were done setting up the amps,” English sound engineer Eddie Kramer recalls, “he took off his raincoat, plugged in, played a chord, and I never heard a thing. such in my life. My life changed in a nanosecond. »

Eddie Kramer will have rubbed shoulders with Jimi Hendrix for only four short years, but it is his entire existence that this atomic nanosecond will influence. After having collaborated in the recording of all the albums of the American guitarist who would have turned 80 this Sunday, the man in the shadows has been since the mid-1990s the main architect of the restoration of his abundant archives, of which has already been unearthed from pyrite, but from which authentic nuggets also sometimes emerge.

Latest example: Los Angeles Forum: April 26, 1969, a new one (released last Friday) which obviously testifies to the bubbling inventiveness of the virtuoso, but also to his humor. For nearly 80 minutes, for only 11 pieces, Hendrix improvises until more thirsty and plays one of the first rereadings of the Star Spangled Bannerwhich he would subvert for posterity four months later at Woodstock.

“Here is a song with which we have all been brainwashed”, he launches in an undeniably provocative tone during this show which will see him both multiplying calls for calm, addressed to a turbulent crowd, and teasing the police. , who were probably salivating at the thought of playing the truncheon. The phrase “Scuse me while I kiss the sky” in Purple Haze thus becomes “Scuse me while I kiss that policeman”!

“His level of communication with the crowd is incredible, symbiotic. There was an intimacy between Jimi and his audience,” observes Kramer, who has worked on some of the most memorable live albums in rock history, including Alive! of KISS and Frampton Comes Alive! by Peter Frampton.

The octogenarian – born seven months before Hendrix – recalls that the stage was becoming at the time more than a place of strict performance, but also of discovery and creation. At LA Forum, the Jimi Hendrix Experience sets the evening on fire with a 15-minute rendition of Tax Freean instrumental piece by the obscure Swedish duo Hansson & Karlsson, whose path he had crossed on tour in Stockholm.

Great guitarist, shy singer

If the crazy expressiveness of Jimi Hendrix’s acting is not news worthy of killing the headlines, the flexibility of his voice remains for its part too little celebrated, thinks Eddie Kramer. “He was a singer who was unsure of himself, he regrets. He always told me to bury his voice in the mix. I used to set up a small cabin for him in the studio, so that he had his back to the control room. I dimmed the light and only left him a lamp so he could read the lyrics. »

Los Angeles Forum: April 26, 1969 also immortalizes the imperturbable cohesion uniting the members of Jimi Hendrix’s group, which did not have just one exuberant instrumentalist, but two, with drummer Mitch Mitchell. How did such torrential musicians know how to anchor themselves to each other, without causing them to go off course?

“Mitch was indeed a completely wild drummer, who came from jazz and Elvin Jones [batteur de John Coltrane, notamment], Kramer opines. In the studio, every time Mitch would go for a big pass, Jimi would look at me and want to say, “I don’t know how he’s going to fall back on beat.” But he still landed on his feet and Jimi started laughing. I think the solidity of Noel [Redding] on bass allowed Jimi and Mitch to spin. »

By following Jimi Hendrix to the United States in 1968, Eddie Kramer became one of his main advisers. It was he who had the brilliant, and economical, idea of ​​building his own studio in 1970, the Electric Lady, in Greenwich Village, which continued to welcome the most important artists of their time, including Taylor Swift, Daft Punk and Lana Del Rey.

“Before, Jimi was spending something like $250,000 a year on studio fees. I said, “Let’s build him the best studio we can.” And he was grateful: when he had a session scheduled for 7 p.m., he always arrived at 7 p.m. sharp, ”he recalls about the one whose punctuality was not the main quality. “At the Electric Lady, he was never late. »

But unfortunately he could only record there for ten weeks.

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Los Angeles Forum: April 26, 1969

Jimi Hendrix Experience

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