Today's Thought

"It isn't where you came from, its where you're going that counts."
-Ella Fitzgerald

Contest Winner! - "Music Heavyweights"

CONGRATULATIONS!
We are pleased to announce that Colonel Possum (one of our Rising Stardom followers who looks surprisingly like jazz keyboardist, Joe Zawinul) has won the most correct answers by naming 13 out of 18 artists, in our recent "Music Heavyweights" photo post of Aug. 27th. Here are his correct answers in black (red = wrong, blue = corrected):


Miles Davis, Janice Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Charley Mingus, John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Evans, Lightin' Hopkins, Eric Dolphy, Duke Ellington.
(you got me!) = Thelonius Monk
Keith Jarret(?) = Bill Evans
Muddy Waters(?) = Lead Belly
John Lee Hooker = Mississippi John Hurt
Howling Wolf = Muddy Waters
= Louis Armstrong




Rising Stardom will send the Colonel a "special prize" for winning our contest and we thank him for his participation!

Jimi Hendrix - Jimi Lives!

39 years ago, on Friday Sept. 18th 1970, Jimi Hendrix boarded his train, slipped into darkness and rode "the hell on away from here" as he many times sang that he would! He "heard his train a coming", yet not one of us was at the station to bid him farewell. Jimi's dazzling guitar and brilliant lyrics were an extension of his soul. Somehow, it wasn't even a guitar anymore, or notes, or music. It was him! He projected Jimi Hendrix! Few musical instruments can completely reflect human emotions so directly as an amplified guitar. An incredibly emotional and sensitive man, Jimi left no sense or feeling untouched! Suddenly, his performance could somehow become both liquid and gaseous at the same time. It could move from tranquility to violence without warning, and smoothly back again. His total control of electronic feedback enabled him to smother an entire audience at will, in a blanket of surrealism!

Though there are many other highly skilled guitarist in today's world, none have yet to equal that unexplainable combination of qualities that made Jimi's style so unique. Nevertheless, guitarists both young and old, are still trying to emulate the genius of Jimi Hendrix. Fender guitars can thank Jimi for all their success (over the many years), selling the Fender Stratocaster guitar, which Jimi made world-famous and eternally popular! Through his special gift, Jimi left his mark and message on all mankind and world cultures. His message was all about "LOVE"! We will never forget Jimi or his extraordinary music!