Jimi Hendrix is one of my Favorite Bass Players...

Precisionb87 · #1 10-30-2011, 09:50 AM

Yup, you heard right. In case anybody is unaware, Hendrix played many of the bass lines on his 1968 Electric Ladyland album. The album credits him to:

Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)
Long Hot Summer Night
Gypsy Eyes
1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)
House Burning Down
All Along the Watchtower
Moon, Turn the Tides... Gently, Gently Away (I think...)

If you have never listened to this stuff, give it a try! The bass lines are SOOO good! very melodic, and neat interwoven rhythms.
Also, from what I understand, Jimi used Noel's bass, which means he was playing a bass with the strings upside-down

Precisionb87 · #2 10-30-2011, 02:00 PM

Also I think there is a photo out there somewhere of Hendrix playing a bass. If anybody has it, of knows where to find it, please post it here.

ChrisPbass · #3 10-30-2011, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Precisionb87

Yup, you heard right. In case anybody is unaware, Hendrix played many of the bass lines on his 1968 Electric Ladyland album. The album credits him to:

Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)
Long Hot Summer Night
Gypsy Eyes
1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)
House Burning Down
All Along the Watchtower
Moon, Turn the Tides... Gently, Gently Away (I think...)

If you have never listened to this stuff, give it a try! The bass lines are SOOO good! very melodic, and neat interwoven rhythms.
Also, from what I understand, Jimi used Noel's bass, which means he was playing a bass with the strings upside-down

I didn't know Jimi did all those....1983 is epic in general but his bass playing is outrageously good.

Luv2Pla4U · #4 10-30-2011, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Precisionb87

Also I think there is a photo out there somewhere of Hendrix playing a bass. If anybody has it, of knows where to find it, please post it here.

I have no background info on this, but here's a picture

carlthegroover · #5 10-30-2011, 04:50 PM

Look at the very bottom of this website:

The Trees - Jacobs Creek - Van Eatons

No, I'm not spamming. There is a photo of Jimi Hendrix playing bass there.

KPJ · #6 10-30-2011, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luv2Pla4U

I have no background info on this, but here's a picture

That's Jimi playing Tommy Shannon's Jazz Bass siting in with Johnny Winter Band.

N.F.A. · #7 10-30-2011, 06:45 PM

I think Jimi is rocking the bass on Come On also. But yes, he is one of my favorite bass players too.

gttim · #8 10-30-2011, 06:57 PM

That is Jimi with the Johnny Winter Band. And Gary Coleman is killing it on the drums!

bassvi · #9 10-30-2011, 07:16 PM

The man was a music genius. It didn't matter what instrument, he had it. I loved his bass playing too.

Two other artists with similar multi-instrumental skills that come come to mind are Prince and Stevie Wonder. I wouldn't put them in the same league with Jimi, but they have amazing talent on several instruments nonethelessl.

**ChrisCassisi** · #10 10-30-2011, 07:20 PM

[quote=bassvi;11687624]The man was a music genius. It didn't matter what instrument, he had it. I loved his bass playing too.

+1

Spectrum · #11 10-30-2011, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gttim

And Gary Coleman is killing it on the drums!

Yeah, I noticed that too!

Tanner5382 · #12 10-30-2011, 07:28 PM

Yeah, he's a great bass player. Apparently sometime in 1969 he did a bass and guitar jam with Leslie West. I would loved to hear that.

Easy8 · #13 10-31-2011, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gttim

That is Jimi with the Johnny Winter Band. And Gary Coleman is killing it on the drums!

Buddy Miles.

There's a more recent photo of that bass in this thread:
Favorite Fender Jazz

5StringBlues · #14 10-31-2011, 11:45 AM

Does anyone know if Jimi played the walking bass in the middle section of "If 6 Was 9""

It's a fairly complex walk and I can't imagine Jimi sitting down and showing it to Noel note for note.

Anyone?

Meddle · #15 10-31-2011, 12:01 PM

I still think it is one of the biggest crimes against music that Jimi had to play alongside such a poor musician as Noel Redding. From various interviews and articles, alongside concert tapes, it seems Redding was an arrogant and difficult musician whilst his horrific fuzzed out live tone is nothing short of horrible. Some of the best bass playing on the early stuff was Hendrix himself... go figure. I don't think Redding ever felt the music in any way.

Bassflute · #16 10-31-2011, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meddle

I still think it is one of the biggest crimes against music that Jimi had to play alongside such a poor musician as Noel Redding. From various interviews and articles, alongside concert tapes, it seems Redding was an arrogant and difficult musician whilst his horrific fuzzed out live tone is nothing short of horrible. Some of the best bass playing on the early stuff was Hendrix himself... go figure. I don't think Redding ever felt the music in any way.

I wish Hendrix had got to play with a really good rhythm section. He was slated to meet up and perhaps play with MilesDavis when he got back from his European tour. So we would have had Hendrix with Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Ron Carter, Tony Williams...now THAT would have been good! What a SHAME! Eventually, through Miles' saxophonist Wayne Shorter, the path may have led to Zawinul and Jaco. Now THAT would have been something.

I was lucky enough to play last year with a legendary drummer up here, Mr. Duris Maxwell. Duris jammed with Hendrix (on bass). Hendrix wanted to start a new band with him when he got back from Europe, which he, of course, never did.

Cheers,
Cameron

Meddle · #17 10-31-2011, 12:14 PM

Maybe you are right and I am being a bit harsh. However, when I first heard Jimi's set from Monterey I was shocked by the bass playing throughout. At the end, when Jimi is trashing his gear, I really want to hear that guitar's dying screams not Noel running up and down some lame blues scales over and over again. Noel was really into the pop side of the business and was probably interested in miming on TOTP for ever instead of actually progressing. Hendrix probably saw the freedom of the Grateful Dead and other jammy bands and was annoyed he was stuck with such a poor bassist, because he seems really annoyed on a lot of live gigs during 1969.

chuck3 · #18 10-31-2011, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meddle

I still think it is one of the biggest crimes against music that Jimi had to play alongside such a poor musician as Noel Redding. From various interviews and articles, alongside concert tapes, it seems Redding was an arrogant and difficult musician whilst his horrific fuzzed out live tone is nothing short of horrible. Some of the best bass playing on the early stuff was Hendrix himself... go figure. I don't think Redding ever felt the music in any way.

That may be a little harsh. Redding was a guitarist recruited by Chas Chandler to play bass with Jimi (and perhaps in part for his Afro). I see no record that Redding played bass previously. I think he may have "felt the music" but, not really being a bass player, responded in ways that don't sound too good to us as bass players today.

From Redding's obit in the Times:

"Mr. Redding was recruited to join Hendrix's band in 1966 by Chas Chandler, the bassist of the Animals, who took Hendrix to England after discovering him in a New York club. At the time Mr. Redding was auditioning as a guitarist for the New Animals when Chandler offered him the job playing bass with Hendrix.

Though trained as a guitarist, Mr. Redding had a bass style whose steady, unembellished lines stood in stark contrast to Hendrix's pyrotechnics and the jazzy drumming of Mitch Mitchell, and provided a solidity to the band's sound.

He also had a look that was right, with a dandyish flair in dress and an untamed tuft of hair that complemented Hendrix's Afro."

dougjwray · #19 10-31-2011, 12:55 PM

Jimi admitted that Noel was chosen because of his hair.

But, still, I think Noel's playing on the first couple of Experience albums is perfectly acceptable, and you need to remember that he was actually a pro-- he came to the audition thinking mistakenly that he was going to be trying out to be a guitarist with the Animals, one of the top British Invasion bands. (Chas Chandler, Jimi's manager, was the Animals' bassist.) I think that his playing on those first two albums is actually surprisingly "bassist-ish", considering that he could have been just another "frustrated guitarist."
As for the horrible, fuzzy live sound... I love it. It really filled out the trio, plus it was completely acceptable in 1967, when the naive -- but "official" -- rule was "turn up all the way." (See: Jack Bruce, Jack Casady, and many others.)

Jim Dep · #20 10-31-2011, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meddle

Hendrix probably saw the freedom of the Grateful Dead and other jammy bands and was annoyed he was stuck with such a poor bassist, because he seems really annoyed on a lot of live gigs during 1969.

Hendrix inspired by the Grateful Dead? Now that's funny! Everything I've read about Hendrix quotes him as saying that groups like the Dead and Jefferson Airplane bored him to tears. Both the Dead and Airplane refused to close out the shows that had Hendrix on the bill ! Hendrix blew them off the stage.

BTW, Noel Reading was a very good and underrated bass player. I think his playing had a nice groove on the early stuff. Hendrix preferred his old army buddy, Billy Cox over Noel, but that doesn't discredit Noel Reading by any stretch. When Billy OD'ed on Acid the same month Hendrix died, Noel Reading was very close to stepping back in the band until (or "IF" at that time) Billy recovered. Hendrix wanted Billy for the funkier groove and willingness to play what Hendrix wanted him to play, but Billy was a vegetable for a while. Noel had a creative mind of his own and didn't like being dictated what to play. That doesn't mean he was a bad player. Eddie Kramer was supportive of NR also, and that says a lot.