Almost fifty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix remains a pivotal and influential figure not only in rock music but it would seem in jazz as well. Let’s listen to a few covers, shall we? 

First up, the tune “Third Stone from the Sun” originally recorded on Hendrix’ debut album. This tune lends itself pretty well to jazz with Mitch Mitchell’s solid, swinging drumming.

Hendrix Spotify link

It’s here covered by the Francis Lockwood trio from an album called Hendrix in Jazz. (Whose cover I borrowed for this post.) There is precious little information that I could about Lockwood other than that he is a French pianist with an apparent aversion to any sort of publicity.

Lockwood Spotify link

“Spanish Castle Magic” from Hendrix’s debut album has always been one of my favorites. It is groovy, man:

Hendrix Spotify link

Not sure if they are still together but the band Fly is/was a trio consisting of saxophonist Mark Turner, drummer Jeff Ballard, and bassist Larry Grenadier. This cover of “Magic” is from their 2004 debut album:

Fly Spotify link

Right about now you’re saying to yourself, wouldn’t it be perfect here to have a violin-based version of “Fire?” Or course it would. First, the Hendrix version. Another personal favorite. When I asked a drummer friend who his favorite drummer was he said Mitch Mitchell and encouraged me to listen to “Fire.” So for once, I listened to drums more than guitar:

Hendrix Spotify link

Wikipedia: “Nigel Kennedy is an English violinist and violist. He made his early career in the classical field and has more recently performed in jazz, klezmer, and other music genres. Kennedy’s grandfather was Lauri Kennedy, principal cellist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra,  and his grandmother was Dorothy Kennedy, a pianist.”

In 1999 he made this cool little album (as Kennedy) called The Kennedy Experience. You ain’t never heard “Fire” quite like this:

Kennedy Spotify link

Manic depression is not only a frustrating mess but also another really cool tune from Jimi’s debut. Let’s give it a listen, shall we:

Hendrix Spotify link

From her website: Ida Sand is a Swedish jazz singer and pianist. Another genetically-motivated musician, her father Staffan was an opera singer with the Royal Swedish Opera and her mother Christina worked as a church musician. In 2005 she received a phone call from Germany. It was from the jazz label ACT. Ida’s debut solo album Meet Me Around Midnight was then released in 2007

Here – again from Hendrix in Jazz – is her too-cool-for-the-room cover of “Manic Depression:”

Sand Spotify link

And lastly, we all know that Hendrix did not write “All Along the Watchtower” but some other dude did. But let’s face it – Hendrix made it his own so much that I think the other guy does Hendrix’s version!

Hendrix Spotify link

A band I really dig is the Turtle Island String Quartet. (They changed their name to Turtle Island Quartet somewhere along the way.) I first caught their action years ago on some long-forgotten late-night New York TV show. They did Cream’s version of “Crossroads” and I thought, fuck, you can do that? I saw them live a couple of years ago and disappointingly, as good as they were, they seemed to have dropped much of the rock from their repertoire:

Turtle Island Spotify link