“Jimi was on a rise, no question”: Hendrix producer believes he had “opened a door” to a new level of creativity shortly before his death
In his 27 short years, Jimi Hendrix cemented his legacy as one of the greatest guitarists who has ever lived. But according to Eddie Kramer, the producer who worked with Hendrix on the likes of Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland, the guitar legend still had much more to give.
In a new interview with Guitarist, Kramer and Filmmaker John McDermott – who recently made a documentary about Electric Lady Studios – talk about Hendrix’s legacy, and what could have been had he not died at the age of 27 in 1970.
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“Jimi was on a rise, no question,” says Kramer. “I think the Band Of Gypsys was the key that opened the door because not only did it yield a fantastic album, but it also had that funk, blues, tough R&B vibe, which led to this beautiful open space for him to jam and really just stretch out for 15 minutes. That was the stepping stone. So his death was not only a shock to everybody, but it was premature in the sense of what he was thinking musically.”
“Listen to the Monterey performance of ‘67 – which is an all-time classic – and then go two years later and listen to Machine Gun. Again you’re talking about three pedals, a guitar and Marshall amps.
“So it isn’t as if there’s some kind of magic technology going on. It’s still one guy, two hands, making sounds that nobody had ever made before.
“So that’s the great tragedy of this. I mean, as you listen to Night Bird Flying, you think, ‘Wow, think of what the next record could have been, with him trying horns and more keyboards.’ Who knows?”
Jimi Hendrix was found unresponsive at a London hotel in the late evening of 17 September, 1970, and was later pronounced dead in the early hours of the following day. His cause of death was ruled to be that he aspirated on his own vomit and died of asphyxia while intoxicated with barbiturates.
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