Modern Listener Guide: Jimi Hendrix

The question arises in online music forums, is asked in the pages of guitar magazines, is debated among countless music fans: People say Jimi Hendrix was a genius, but where do I start with his music?After all, as the iconic status of Hendrix looms larger with each passing year, there is a continual generation of new listeners just discovering his work. They may know he is important by how often he is name-checked by today's top musicians and by the near-constant presence of his image across all forms of media, but they soon discover there is a complicated and confusing body of material spread across many titles and record labels.Now acclaimed author and musician Frank Moriarty brings to life the world of Jimi Hendrix in Modern Listener Guide: Jimi Hendrix. With informed commentary and spirited critical perspective, Moriarty expertly leads the way through the studio sessions, live concert recordings, and myriad album and box set releases that comprise the imposing legacy of one of the world's great guitarists and musical personalities.In the wake of Jimi Hendrix's brief, mercurial career, books about this legendary musician tend to offer simple platitudes, casually proclaiming various works to be Hendrix's masterpieces. But they offer little or no context communicating why these recordings are masterpieces and through what means Hendrix realized his musical vision. Accordingly, Modern Listener Guide: Jimi Hendrix takes on its subject in a way that has not been successfully accomplished, with insight and analysis given life by a vibrant approach.The music appears largely in chronological format, surrounded by events within the life and career of Jimi. This provides a colorful, up-to-date and historically accurate framework. What was it like to be on tour in 1968? How is it that the biggest rock star in the world lived a life of chaotic day-to-day logistics? How did Hendrix's creative instincts clash with the way pop music is done? The answers to these questions and many more complement the critical reviews of Jimi's music, giving readers a revealing and complete picture of this musical legend.By balancing accurate portraits of Jimi's career interspersed with insightful commentary on the dozens of significant releases that stand as cornerstones of his creativity, Modern Listener Guide: Jimi Hendrix will be invaluable to readers just discovering Hendrix, and will also appeal to those already familiar with Jimi's compelling music and unforgettable life.
About the Author: Frank Moriarty is a writer and guitarist. The award-winning author of fifteen nonfiction books, he also has written for publications on a variety of topics ranging from motorsports development programs and NASA spaceflight to R&B and rock 'n' roll. In the Jimi Hendrix realm, Frank wrote the book Bold as Love: The Jimi Hendrix Experience (MetroBooks, 1996) with a foreword by Experience bassist Noel Redding. He has also contributed to the acclaimed Eyewitness: Jimi Hendrix reference book series and provided feature articles to the Hendrix family periodical Experience Hendrix as well as the magazines Jimpress and UniVibes: The International Jimi Hendrix Magazine. Frank attended Jimi Hendrix performances in 1969 and 1970.Frank has been a guitarist for more than four decades. His band Informed Sources performed with groundbreaking US punk bands including Black Flag, X, the Replacements, Flipper, Dead Kennedys, and Bad Brains throughout the early 1980s. His career in music continued in later bands including Bunnydrums and Third Stone Invasion as a label-mate with artists including John Entwistle of The Who and Billy Squier.Frank's writing career began in the early 1970s during his teenage years. In the 1980s he began a decade-long stint as weekly rock music columnist for Philadelphia City Paper, then became associated with Philadelphia Weekly.Frank has met or interviewed musicians ranging from David Bowie and Pete Townshend to Joe Strummer and Patti Smith.Friends to canines and adopters of an ever-growing string of rescue dogs saved from homelessness, Frank and his wife Leigh Anne reside in New Jersey.