Jimi Hendrix - Jimi Hendrix: Blues (1994)

Purists may feel that the inclusion of rock guitar god Jimi Hendrix alongside blues pioneers such as Tampa Red or Howlin' Wolf is shear blasphemy. It can be argued, however, that Hendrix did more to bring the blues to a white audience than any of the great blues artists of the era or the white British rockers who followed them. First and foremost, Hendrix was a bluesman, bringing a great deal of that style and tradition to the work he created during the late-60s.

Jimi Hendrix: Blues recognizes this debt to Hendrix's early influences and collects eleven of the legend's most soulful blues performances on one disc. Hendrix picked up the guitar as a young teen, quickly developing a style patterned after his favorites, artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Hopkins and Slim Harpo. Living in Nashville after getting out of the army, Hendrix hooked up with Billy Cox, with whom he would play across the country, both as a duo and backing other artists. Hendrix eventually built reputation playing on the road with R & B artists such as Little Richard and Jackie Wilson.

In the mid-60s, Hendrix was to turn away from his pure blues roots towards rock music. He put together a band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and, cutting hit songs like Foxey Lady and Purple Haze, used his instrumental prowess to redefine the role of guitar in contemporary rock & roll. Indeed, Hendrix perhaps sealed the six-string instrument's fate as the driving power in rock, building upon the momentum created by British artists like Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.

Through his brief tenure as rock star, however, Hendrix would always return to his roots both on stage and on record, albeit in a way that would make most purists shudder. Whether it was through his personalized versions of traditional blues standards like Catfish Blues or Bleeding Heart, covers like Muddy Waters' Mannish Boy, or cranking out originals like Red House, Voodoo Chile or Hear My Train A Comin', Hendrix always had one foot planted firmly in the blues milieu. Jimi Hendrix: Blues is an important collection, introducing listeners to a different side of this great artist, one that remained important until his untimely death. (MCA Records)

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