Post 65: Get the bedspread right
Jimi’s even mentioned in a piece about Handel, Hanoverians and religion this week.
The last few weeks have been a whirl of excitement, a board meeting, a wonderful anniversary party, a fundraising trip to America and some in depth discussion on items we need for Hendrix’s bedroom.
With regard to the latter we have decided to focus on ten key items that are highly recognisable from the photos and which we need to get as close as possible to the original. For example the bedspread is not only identifiable but will take up a large proportion of the room so this needs to be right. We are hoping that we will be able to mine the John Lewis archive for some of the information about the type of products they were selling at the time. Another archive department we are also hoping to work with is the one at the Royal Albert Hall; Jimi gave two concerts there whilst he was living here in the flat. Any images they can provide us with of the Hall, inside and out, in early 1969 will be really useful context for us.
Of course there is the usual plethora of Hendrix articles, all largely pretty irrelevant non-stories or mostly damning reviews of the Hendrix biopic. However one thing I encourage you take note of is this brilliant arrangement of Purple Haze which is the best example of classical musicians doing rock I have ever heard. Enjoy!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0295scq
Comments
May I direct you towards the work of the incredible Gil Evans. I can’t do better than quote from his own website:- ‘In 1974, the Evans gave a concert tribute to guitarist Jimi Hendrix, followed by an album, The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix. Evans considered Hendrix another “sound innovator”, and had hoped to work with the guitarist before his tragic death in 1970. Some of these arrangements were written by Evans’s band members, and became a staple in the band’s repertoire for years to come, with the kind of “ haunting cry” that Evans sought to express.’