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Jimi Hendrix Experience music biography continued...

who was discovered in 1966 by Chas Chandler, the former Animals bassist, while performing at New York's Cafe Wha? with his group, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. Chandler became Hendrix's manager and brought him to England, where he absorbed the nascent psychedelic movement, changed the spelling of his first name "Jimi" and formed a trio with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. They called the band the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Though initially conceived as Hendrix's backing band, The Experience soon became much more integral than that. Following the lead of Cream, they were one of the first groups to popularize the "power trio" format, which essentially strips a rock band lineup down to the essentials: bass, guitar and drums. The lineup came to prominence in the U.S. only after the June 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, one of the first major rock music festivals. The band's performance ended with Hendrix famously setting his psychedelically painted Fender Stratocaster, given to him by Redding, on fire. With the band, Hendrix would go on to record his five hit singles "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze", "The Wind Cries Mary", "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" and "All Along the Watchtower", and his three most successful albums, Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland. Internal squabbling, however, led to the band's breakup in 1969, and though a reunion was talked about for awhile, it never materialized. When Hendrix died in September 1970 from drug-related complications, The Jimi Hendrix Experience began rock and roll lore.