Jimi Hendrix: Soundscapes

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Description

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes Jimi Hendrix as 'arguably thegreatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music'. He played at a timewhen electric amplification extended the scope of the guitar to three-dimensional,urban space. Bob Dylan theorized that Hendrix found newspaces in his songs.Jimi Hendrix: Soundscapesshows how Hendrix created music in particularplaces from the California coast to New York City; from his beginningsin Seattle to his end in London. Marie-Paule Macdonald shows Hendrix tobe a city-dweller, nighthawk and wanderer who favoured the modest surroundingsof ordinary buildings and public places and who loved to stumbleupon seedy basement bars and intimate clubs to both visit and performin. She explores how the rumble, uproar, babble and discord of the cityinspired and became part of Hendrix's powerful repertoire, and how hecommissioned an architect and a sound engineer to create an urbanrecording studio that enhanced reverberation, bounce, sustain and echo.Hendrix led a collective musical revolution and performed in innovative,ad-hoc spaces: open-air festivals, inexpensive under-used music halls,dilapidated psychedelic ballrooms and any other reverberant spaces hecould find.

Author Bio

Marie-Paule Macdonald is Professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Her previous books include Rockspaces (2000) and Wild in the Streets: The Sixties (in collaboration with Dan Graham, 1994).