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This is from last march, but I liked reading it, because I knew that Jimi had lived with the Isley Brothers from my high school days, but I never had much information on it until now.
Ernie Isley channels Hendrix he knew as a boy
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March 10, 2010 10:26 PM
By JILL MOON
ST. LOUIS — The spirit of Jimi Hendrix will enter accomplished artists at the Experience Hendrix Tour — including performances from insider Ernie Isley.
Isley, a St. Louis resident, fronts Ernie Isley and The Jam Band and is the second-youngest sibling in the famous Isley Brothers. Hendrix lived with Isley’s family in Englewood, N.J., from spring 1963 until just before Thanksgiving 1965. Hendrix’s definitive album, "Are You Experienced?" came out in 1967. Isley performs in the Experience Hendrix lineup Saturday, March 20, at The Fox Theatre.
The Isley Brothers hired Hendrix to replace a guitar player who had quit. The band already had a place to stay, recalled Isley, who was 11 years old at the time.
"Out of being practical, it was like, ‘You can stay at my mother’s house,’" Isley said.
Isley especially recalls how kind Hendrix was with youngsters. Hendrix watched Bugs Bunny cartoons with Isley and his younger brother, Marvin, who was 10 years old at the time, Isley said.
"Marvin and I kind of owned the television set," laughed Isley, who spoke to The Telegraph on Tuesday from a hotel room in Fresno, Calif., where he was on the Experience Hendrix Tour. "Marvin didn’t know when to change strings and hit a particular note; Jimi tried to explain that. He got along very well with kids. We were all kids."
Isley’s little brother tried to do what Hendrix showed him.
"But it didn’t sound the same, because, first, he told Marvin, ‘You’re right-handed, and I’m left, and though that’s a right-handed guitar, it’s strung for a left-handed player.’"
Hendrix always maintained patience with them, Isley said.
When Isley, his nieces, nephews and neighborhood friends played kickball or softball in the back yard and would hear the band in his house rehearsing, they all would stop and run into the house, he said.
"If they were playing ‘Shout’ or ‘Twist and Shout,’ the game automatically stopped," he said.
They all ran downstairs to watch and listen.
"In all that, Jimi would be playing, and if a note was flying around, all of a sudden he might reach out his left hand like he caught the note," Isley recalled. "He would look at you and wink, because he knew you were watching him. It was like our own show. That was a very impressionable thing for kids at that age."
Although Isley took up music later, he paid close attention and took note of Hendrix practicing while Hendrix stayed at the home of Isley’s mother. Isley picked up drumsticks in late 1965, when Hendrix left.
"I would tell him, ‘I had my notebook open inside my social studies book, and you were in the room — I was watching you.’"
Isley joined his brothers’ band in 1966 as a drummer, but moved three years later to bassist, playing on the Isleys’ breakthrough funk smash, "It’s Your Thing," in 1969. Then he moved on to electric and acoustic guitar while playing with the group in the early 1970s.
Isley became aware of Hendrix more than a year before the Monterey International Pop Music Festival, a three-day rock fest from June 16 to 18, 1967, in Monterey, Calif., which hosted the first major American appearances of Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding and The Who.
"Next thing we know, he’s got ‘Are You Experienced?’" Isley said.
Isley performs Hendrix’s "Manic Depression" from "Are You Experienced?" on the Experience Hendrix Tour.
"It’s one of the tunes on the album that reminded me of what I felt like when I listened to him as a boy, because that’s the way he played," Isley said. "That’s the way that song sounds — like the Jimi I was exposed to."
Featured artists who will be performing music written and inspired by Hendrix include some of the best-known and most respected artists in contemporary rock and blues, such as Isley, Joe Satriani, Jonny Lang, Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Brad Whitford (of Aerosmith), Doyle Bramhall II, Living Colour, Double Trouble’s Chris Layton, along with bassist Billy Cox.
Cox first befriended Hendrix when the two were in the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. Cox played in both the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys and performed with Hendrix at such landmark festivals as Woodstock and the Isle of Wight.
Ernie Isley and the Jam Band continues to work on its latest CD and a tour will follow, said their tour manager Dave Thomason, owner of Carmen Concerts in Wood River. Thomason will join Isley for the Experience Hendrix Tour in Kansas City, Chicago and St. Louis.
Ernie Isley channels Hendrix he knew as a boy
Comments 0
March 10, 2010 10:26 PM
By JILL MOON
ST. LOUIS — The spirit of Jimi Hendrix will enter accomplished artists at the Experience Hendrix Tour — including performances from insider Ernie Isley.
Isley, a St. Louis resident, fronts Ernie Isley and The Jam Band and is the second-youngest sibling in the famous Isley Brothers. Hendrix lived with Isley’s family in Englewood, N.J., from spring 1963 until just before Thanksgiving 1965. Hendrix’s definitive album, "Are You Experienced?" came out in 1967. Isley performs in the Experience Hendrix lineup Saturday, March 20, at The Fox Theatre.
The Isley Brothers hired Hendrix to replace a guitar player who had quit. The band already had a place to stay, recalled Isley, who was 11 years old at the time.
"Out of being practical, it was like, ‘You can stay at my mother’s house,’" Isley said.
Isley especially recalls how kind Hendrix was with youngsters. Hendrix watched Bugs Bunny cartoons with Isley and his younger brother, Marvin, who was 10 years old at the time, Isley said.
"Marvin and I kind of owned the television set," laughed Isley, who spoke to The Telegraph on Tuesday from a hotel room in Fresno, Calif., where he was on the Experience Hendrix Tour. "Marvin didn’t know when to change strings and hit a particular note; Jimi tried to explain that. He got along very well with kids. We were all kids."
Isley’s little brother tried to do what Hendrix showed him.
"But it didn’t sound the same, because, first, he told Marvin, ‘You’re right-handed, and I’m left, and though that’s a right-handed guitar, it’s strung for a left-handed player.’"
Hendrix always maintained patience with them, Isley said.
When Isley, his nieces, nephews and neighborhood friends played kickball or softball in the back yard and would hear the band in his house rehearsing, they all would stop and run into the house, he said.
"If they were playing ‘Shout’ or ‘Twist and Shout,’ the game automatically stopped," he said.
They all ran downstairs to watch and listen.
"In all that, Jimi would be playing, and if a note was flying around, all of a sudden he might reach out his left hand like he caught the note," Isley recalled. "He would look at you and wink, because he knew you were watching him. It was like our own show. That was a very impressionable thing for kids at that age."
Although Isley took up music later, he paid close attention and took note of Hendrix practicing while Hendrix stayed at the home of Isley’s mother. Isley picked up drumsticks in late 1965, when Hendrix left.
"I would tell him, ‘I had my notebook open inside my social studies book, and you were in the room — I was watching you.’"
Isley joined his brothers’ band in 1966 as a drummer, but moved three years later to bassist, playing on the Isleys’ breakthrough funk smash, "It’s Your Thing," in 1969. Then he moved on to electric and acoustic guitar while playing with the group in the early 1970s.
Isley became aware of Hendrix more than a year before the Monterey International Pop Music Festival, a three-day rock fest from June 16 to 18, 1967, in Monterey, Calif., which hosted the first major American appearances of Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding and The Who.
"Next thing we know, he’s got ‘Are You Experienced?’" Isley said.
Isley performs Hendrix’s "Manic Depression" from "Are You Experienced?" on the Experience Hendrix Tour.
"It’s one of the tunes on the album that reminded me of what I felt like when I listened to him as a boy, because that’s the way he played," Isley said. "That’s the way that song sounds — like the Jimi I was exposed to."
Featured artists who will be performing music written and inspired by Hendrix include some of the best-known and most respected artists in contemporary rock and blues, such as Isley, Joe Satriani, Jonny Lang, Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Brad Whitford (of Aerosmith), Doyle Bramhall II, Living Colour, Double Trouble’s Chris Layton, along with bassist Billy Cox.
Cox first befriended Hendrix when the two were in the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. Cox played in both the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys and performed with Hendrix at such landmark festivals as Woodstock and the Isle of Wight.
Ernie Isley and the Jam Band continues to work on its latest CD and a tour will follow, said their tour manager Dave Thomason, owner of Carmen Concerts in Wood River. Thomason will join Isley for the Experience Hendrix Tour in Kansas City, Chicago and St. Louis.