Jimi Hendrix was first and foremost a blues guitarist, one whose jorney to the crossroads cut through the heart of an entire century of music uniting the four desperate strains of Afro-America - blues, jazz, rhytthm and blues and rock - into a seamless fusion that was the ultimate evolution of the blues.
Hendrix began his lifelong affair with the blues listening to the post-World War ll
masters of the urban electric style while growing up in the prosaic environs of Seattle, Washington. He said, "The first guitarist I was aware of was Muddy Waters. I heard one of his old records when I was little and it scared me to death when I heard all those sounds. I thought, wow, what is that all about?" - and he was destined to spend the rest of his life finding out.
He also noted of his early influences; "When I first started I liked everything from B.B.King to Muddy Waters, Bach to Eddie Cochrain, but I never tried to copy anybody. Those were just the people that gave the feeling to get my own thing together," But in order to express his feelings he had to master a musical language and the first one he learned was the blues, and they were his passport to the many musical roads he would travel.
..."I was upstairs while the grown ups had parties, listening to Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, and Ray Charles." ..."I was very lonely, I got the guitar together because it was all I had."
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