One of the all-time greatest musicians of the 20th century, and of all time. Pushed back every conceivable boundary with the Electric Guitar, and influenced almost everyone.
* 1966/67: Recording for The Jimi Hendrix Experience's debut album, Are You Experienced begins in London, before the group has a record contract. Are You Experienced makes its U.S debut in August of 1967. The album lands in Billboard's Top 10 and spends 106 weeks in the magazine's album charts, including 77 weeks in the Top 40.
* The Jimi Hendrix Experience play their first US concert on June 18, 1967 at the Monterey Pop Festival. Audiences are astounded when Hendrix concludes his performance by setting his guitar on fire and smashing it against his amps.
* Axis: Bold as Love is recorded at Olympic Studios in London, where parts of Are You Experienced had also been cut. Released in the US in January of 1968, Axis makes number five in Billboard's Top 200 album chart the following month.
* Released in October of 1968, Electric Ladyland quickly becomes one of the most influential double albums of the Sixties. Recording began in London and concluded in New York. Electric Ladyland is The Jimi Hendrix Experience's first number one release.
* June 27, 1969: The Jimi Hendrix Experience plays its last concert at the Denver Pop Festival.
* August 18, 1969. Jimi Hendrix plays Woodstock, closing the festival with an incendiary solo guitar rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner."
* January 1, 1970 -- The Band of Gypsys live album is recorded at New York's Fillmore East.
* 1969-1970: Hendrix at work on a new studio album, recording with members of the Experience and the Band of Gypsys. Many tracks are cut at Hendrix's newly completed recording studio, Electric Lady, in New York's Greenwich Village.
* September 18, 1970: Jimi Hendrix dies in London, at age 27.
* 1970: Al Hendrix, the guitarist's father, engages attorney Leo Branton Jr. to manage his deceased son's estate and straighten out the tangle of financial obligations and legal disputes Jimi left behind.
* March, 1971: Under the supervision of Michael Jeffery-co-manager of Jimi Hendrix along with Chas Chandier-a long series of posthumous Jimi Hendrix album releases begins with The Cry of Love.
* 1973: After Michael Jeffery dies in a plane crash, Alan Douglas is placed in charge of preparing posthumous Hendrix product. Douglas had worked in the studio with Hendrix in 1969.
* April 1993: A lawsuit filed by Al Hendrix and his daughter Janie Hendrix (Jimi's half'sister) charges Leo Branton, Alan Douglas and several of their associates with over 20 years of "misrepresentations, mismanagement, unjust enrichments and self-dealing."
* 1995: An out-of-court settlement effectively transfers ownership of Jimi Hendrix's music and image to Al Hendrix and his family members. Acting under the company name Experience Hendrix, the family engages Jimi's original engineer/co-producer Eddie Kramer and Hendrix historian John McDermott to track down the original master tapes for the four albums the guitarist completed in his lifetime and the fifth record he was working on at the time of his death.
* 1996: Working with noted mastering engineer George Marino, Kramer and McDermott re-master Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, Electric Ladyland and Band of Gypsys from original master tapes located by McDermott in London, Los Angeles, New York and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. This marks the first time ever that Hendrix's music will appear on a CD that has been mastered from the original tapes. Prior CD reissues had been prepared from the old EQed master tapes made for the sonic limitations of vinyl discs - or, worse yet, from second, third and fourth generation copies of the EQed masters. MCA's new CD reissues are the first to take advantage of Compact Disc's expanded frequency range, making it possible to hear Jimi Hendrix's sonically adventurous music with greater clarity and detail than it's ever been heard before.
* 1996: Kramer, McDermott and Marino also compile and master First Rays of the New Rising Sun, a historically accurate recreation of the album Hendrix was working on at the time of his death. Individual songs have appeared on three posthumous albums, The Cry of Love, Rainbow Bridge and War Heroes, but will be heard together for the first time on First Rays of the New Rising Sun. The album title and running order of the songs were taken from production notes in Jimi Hendrix's own handwriting.
* 1997: The Universal Music Group and MCA Records sign an exclusive, worldwide licensing agreement with Experience Hendrix for distribution of the Hendrix catalog.
* April 8, 1997: MCA Records globally releases, in 180 gram vinyl format, for the first time in its original form, First Rays of the New Rising Sun. This date also marks the global re-release Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland in 180 gram vinyl format with restored original artwork.
* April 22, 1997: MCA Records globally releases, in CD and cassette formats, First Rays of the New Rising Sun, for the first time in its original form. This date also marks the global CD and cassette re-issue of Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland with restored original artwork.
* April 22, 1997: MCA Records releases internationally (exclusive of the U.S. and Canada) the re-mastered Band of Gypsys concert album.
* MCA reissues both the North American and English versions of Are You Experienced, which had slightly different running orders and song selections. The re-issued North American version includes bonus tracks.
* October 7, 1997: MCA releases South Saturn Delta, a new album comprised of previously unavailable studio tracks recorded from 1967 to 1970. The 15-song album is available in 180 gram vinyl, CD and cassette formats.
* 1998: MCA will release a concert album, recorded January 1, 1970 at the Fillmore East, during the same legendary performance which spawned the live album, Band Of Gypsys. -The album will feature music from the concert which does not appear on Band Of Gypsys.
