One would be hard pressed to argue the guitar virtuosity of Jimi Hendrix. I mean, you just can't do it. His effects on music spanning multiple genres are countless. His legacy, while comparatively small, is simply unquestionable. Lighting guitars on fire, check. Re-interpreting our national anthem, check. A questionable death with plenty of conspiracy theories, check.
With all that said, the idea of an artist taking Hendrix's work and interpreting it for himself seems almost heretical. Then add on to that the the interpreting musician in question isn't even a guitarist, but a PIANIST, and you might be ready to reform the Spanish Inquisition. Enter the defendant: Josh Charles.
Charles has taken four of Hendrix's songs (Little Wing, All Along the Watchtower, Hey Joe, and Voodoo Child) and dramatically transformed them on his new (and free) EP, Trippin' the Keys: The Music of Jimi Hendrix. The only sounds you'll find on the EP are Charles' voice and his piano, and while the tracks clearly resemble the originals, in piano form they sound very much different. And the results are surprisingly good! It ain't Jimi, that goes without saying, but in its own way it's as exploratory as Jimi was with his music. Check out one of the EP's tracks below, then download the whole thing from Charles' website, and in the process you'll be in the running to win a Casio Privia keyboard.
Josh Charles - All Along the Watchtower (Jimi Hendrix cover) : Trippin' the Keys: The Music of Jimi Hendrix
No comments:
Post a Comment