On this episode of From the Vaultwe celebrate one of the great creative musicians of the 20th century, Jimi Hendrix, through the sounds of a four-part documentary titled Jimi Hendrix.
In 1982, twelve years after Hendrix’s untimely death at the age of 27, a team of talented producers (including Bari Scott, Craig Street and Don West) from Pacifica’s flagship station KPFA 94.1 FM – Berkeley enlisted the help of biographer David Henderson, author of Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child of the Aquarian Age, to explore the idea of a comprehensive radio production celebrating the life of the legendary guitarist. Their collaboration resulted in a captivating four-hour documentary that compiles previously unheard and rare recordings exploring this musical legend; it includes music, of course, but also interviews with the people who knew Hendrix best. We’ll hear from members of Jimi’s family, blues singer John Hammond (who befriended the young Hendrix in Greenwich Village in 1966), Chas Chandler from The Animals (who brought Hendrix to England and became his manager), Noel Redding, Ornette Coleman, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Stevie Wonder, John Lee Hooker, and others.
Part one of four.
From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.