Rock & metal
Jimi Hendrix
Contrary to a widespread belief, Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) never played the Montreux Jazz Festival: his name appears in no programme since the festival was founded in 1967. His presence in Montreux rests on something else. The guitarist passed through the Harry’s Bar at the Montreux Palace, since renamed Funky Claude's Bar, and signed its guest book. That register, kept for ten years by Tania Gauger, also holds the signatures of David Bowie, Aretha Franklin and Herbie Hancock. It came close, though. At the end of the summer of 1970, Claude Nobs travelled to the Isle of Wight festival, where Hendrix played on 30 August. He came back with the idea of programming him in Montreux, along with the Doors. The guitarist died on 18 September 1970, less than three weeks later; Jim Morrison died in July 1971. Neither would ever stand on a Montreux stage.
Jimi Hendrix, the comet of rock
A meteoric career
Born in Seattle in 1942, Jimi Hendrix turned rock upside down in just a few years. Spotted in London in 1966, he imposed an electric guitar style of extraordinary freedom, between blues, rock and sonic experimentation.
The Monterey festival in 1967, where he burned his guitar, then Woodstock in 1969, where he deconstructed the American anthem, made him a legend. He died in London on 18 September 1970, aged twenty-seven, leaving three studio albums and the image of the most influential of electric guitarists.