Trajectories and Territories: Hendrix Soundscapes NIGHT: PASSAGES Trajectories and Territories: Hendrix Soundscapes

Marie-Paule Macdonald evaluating and experimenting with sound in situ. He amassed a body of knowledge PREAMBLE of Rhythm and , and honed a musical practice that remains influential, using urban Nightclub life may be an occasional weeknight and atmospheric noise, feedback and an or weekend pastime for most clubbers, but inventive array of original guitar sounds, it opens up new worlds of possibilities in eventually harnessing the guitar, amplifier the life cycle of an itinerant musician. When and recording studio to create spatial poet-performer Patti Smith moved to New soundscapes. York from New Jersey, she said she slept The brief outline of Hendrix’s career is in cemeteries. When moved to well known. He roved throughout the Seattle New York he wrote lyrics about sleeping in area as a youth, often with his younger brother Seattle, Washington alleys. In his early days on the road, with no in his care. He left school to play in bands, real home, whether touring or navigating the then left his hometown for basic training in metropolis, he faced a challenge every gig , and was posted to an army base night. After playing a set, there was a window in Kentucky for paratrooper training. He left of opportunity to find someone to put him up, the army after eight months and twenty- someone to stay with, someone to hook up five jumps, writing home about the whoosh with, a new acquaintance or old friend. Later of air past his ears. He began his career in he paid his respects, acknowledging all the Clarksville, soon moving to Nashville. He began many people—including many young women— travelling extensively throughout the South who gave him a one-night stand, or a place to on the Chitlin’ Circuit, playing the nightly stay and maybe breakfast. and the after-party scenes. He spent time in Harlem, returned to the Chitlin’ Circuit, and NIGHTLY AND DAILY was based in New York by 1966. From there he moved to and founded the Experience, Daily life has this essential trait—it does touring England, Scandinavia, and Germany. not allow itself to be grasped. In 1967 The Experience played Monterey Pop, –Maurice Blanchot1 where the power trio broke into the American market, touring larger venues and the large- By nature a nomadic performer, Hendrix scale stadium circuit. As crowds grew large wandered into many metropolitan, small-town and unruly, Hendrix lost interest in the stadium Nashville, Tennessee and rural locations throughout his career, and the emerging festival scene. He distrusted 18 SCAPEGOAT 10 19 Trajectories and Territories: Hendrix Soundscapes NIGHT: PASSAGES his management and remained indifferent to Descartes wrote Compendium Musicae in 1618 the mass market. He continued to experiment, (published in 1650), when he was twenty- and to connect with African-American two, a book described as “an attempt to audiences, playing with the collective formulate a theory of sound.”2 Descartes ensemble Gypsy Suns and Rainbows at a free arose late in the afternoon, and his living concert in Harlem in 1969, then founding Band premises were disorderly. Another kind of of Gypsys, the influential Black power trio with influence is the incessant change of dwelling. BiIly Cox and , recording their live Baudelaire burned through his inheritance New Year’s performance at the Fillmore East in as a youth, and became an impoverished 1969-70. couch-surfer later in life—his forty-four The thrills and the grind of a touring Paris addresses have been carefully mapped. rock musician’s life, whether in a bus as a In the late twentieth and early twenty-first member of a R & B backing band, or leading a century, it appears that the creative practice rock trio, involved checking in at a constantly and habits of musical and lyrical composer- changing, kaleidoscopic array of venues performers as nocturnal public figures—from and hotels. It was a challenge for Hendrix to David Bowie, to , Nina Simone, Joni construct and engage in a regular routine— Mitchell, Patti Smith, and Kanye West—invoke still it was essential for Hendrix, who relied on and conjure a powerful cultural influence. solitude as well as small crowds of friends and A series of reversals in the life of a strangers to feed his creative muse. performer may fit a discernable pattern. Hendrix was an urban wanderer and For example, Duke Ellington built a routine seeker of sounds, attracted to the ordinary revolving around nightly writing. He awoke streets of the city, and local clubs at the scale after 5pm in the afternoon he performed. New York, Midtown of the neighbourhood. This text, images and As the evening wore on, he returned to his maps trace and track some of his trajectories, room to write and compose all throughout the locating addresses and identifying particular night until morning. This pattern makes sense local situations to accumulate an overall considering that he used the freshly heard impression about places and their occupants— impressions of his band members’ sounds in the families, friends, and entourages. A series their nightly playing. This became the basis for of addresses, vicinities, and geographies gather his compositions as he harvested the riffs he together an empirical narrative. Whether, or had heard, whether improvised or played from even after, the buildings, streets, or entire notations. blocks are now gone, the accrued awareness The daily routines of Jimi Hendrix may of these places and the search for place and appear to have been completely unhinged. context in a particular era of sound could be He enjoyed long runs of jamming that lasted described as an “anti-dematerialization.” days, from twilight to well past dawn. By 1968, These trajectories and vicinities form the he had a two-storey flat at 23 Brook Street, basis of research on the role of urbanity Mayfair, in London, while his recording studio and soundscape in the musical expressions was to be designed and built in Manhattan. In of Hendrix, in an era of conceptualism and 1969 he left to stay at a hotel in Los Angeles, progressively dematerialized aesthetic the Beverly Rodeo Hyatt House at 360 North practices. Rodeo Drive, to compose with , just as he moved into an apartment on West Twelfth REVERSALS—DAY FOR NIGHT Street in Manhattan. Growing up in Seattle, Hendrix moved Throughout history, the daily processes of often, living in a series of dwellings. He lived creative productivity reversed or upended at times with relatives and family friends, New York, Greenwich Village routine conventions, including those of day while his father sought steady work. The and night and circadian rhythms. For example, wandering playwright Sam Shepard spoke of 20 SCAPEGOAT 10 21 Trajectories and Territories: Hendrix Soundscapes NIGHT: PASSAGES Glamour—where performers had their hair done before gigs—that was also demolished. Intermittent postcards to Al Hendrix provide laconic clues to his son’s whereabouts during this time, including an Atlanta address from October 1964. Bobby Womack confirmed the influence of Curtis Mayfield, his sound and uplifting lyrics, on Hendrix, during a tour where Hendrix was left behind after he blew a Mayfield amp.

NEW YORK’S NOCTURNAL SIDEWALKS

“New York is […] finding a way to enjoy the darkness.” —John Cage6

In Harlem Hendrix met Apollo Faye, a nickname for Lithofayne Pridgon, an Apollo Theatre regular and a friend of . Etta James Rocks the House, 1963 album cover. James’s first live The Hendrix family started out living with family, namely, Lucille’s album was recorded at the New Era Club in Nashville. The venue Etta James claimed to notice only that Hendrix sister, “Auntie” Delores Hall Hamm, in an apartment at Yesler guitar players. At that time, there were was victim of an urban erasure of the traditional nightlife strip ate Chinese food regularly at a “chop suey Terrace. The social housing development was described as one of along Jefferson Street due to the construction of Interstate 40 in the first integrated American social housing projects in the post- no superhighways that are now obstacles the mid-1960s (photo credit: promotional document). joint” on 125th Ave. She remembered, “About war period. Some of the designers went on to form the corporate to traversing the city. Michel de Certeau this time I met Jimi Hendrix […] I was too busy architecture firm NBBJ (photo credit: public domain). famously compared the relationship of near Garfield High School. Through Johnson, being a junkie to follow Jimi’s career.”7 sensing the domestic evening environments speaking in a language to the act of walking Hendrix learned that the food was discarded In early 1964 Hendrix joined the Isley of other families, saying, “I remember as a kid, in the city. In that vein another analogy may at closing. Hendrix would drop by late at night, Brothers, staying for a while in the Isley family going into other people’s houses. Everything be drawn between the plucking of a tone, on hoping whoever was on staff would give him home in Teaneck, New Jersey. After touring was different. The smells in the kitchen a guitar string, relating to the musical noise the leftover burgers. Often he ate everything with them for several months, he left the Isley were different; the clothing was different. of a collective in a blues repertoire. With a there on the spot.5 Brothers in September 1964 to back Atlanta- That bothered me. There’s something very group of adolescents from his neighbourhood, After his army stint, starting out by based emcee “Gorgeous” George Odell for mysterious about other families and the Hendrix participated in a series of bands: first founding a band with bassist Billy Cox, then a while in the fall, playing after-parties for way they function.”3 In 1953, Hendrix’s the Velvetones, then the Rocking Teens, the leaving to travel on his own as a sideman touring headlining bands. The late, late after- father Al made a down payment on a house Rocking Kings, and Thomas and the Tomcats. based in Nashville, information on Hendrix’s party scene gave wired performers a chance at 2303 South Washington. By 1956 it was His life revolved around nightlife and gigs, early career has been sketched out. At the to unwind after their shows. In Atlanta, Hendrix repossessed. Al and his son moved to a in a revolving band line-up that played local time Nashville was one of the places where was hired to play in ’s band, later boardinghouse, then to a garage, then to an Seattle venues, including Washington Hall, civil rights activists staged a series of lunch- touring to Los Angeles. There Hendrix met apartment on First Hill, while younger brother and a club called Birdland, a venue at Madison counter sit-ins. Hendrix and Cox once staged Rosa Lee Brooks and recorded with her, at a Leon lived on weekdays with foster families. and Twenty-Second, on a regular basis. This one of their own and had to be bailed out by session with Arthur Lee—a like-minded, long- Leon wrote of the smell of gasoline in the club, no doubt named after ’s their nightclub-owning boss. haired musician, who founded the psychedelic apartment in the evening. After Al found nickname, “Bird,” shortened from “Yardbird,” Nashville demolished much of rock band, Love. steady work in landscaping, first in business refers to the winged creatures whose songs the Jefferson Street African-American In July 1965 Hendrix left L.A. for New with relatives, then on his own, he stored his and refrains inspired Deleuze and Guattari to entertainment district where Hendrix used to York, saying, “I went back to New York and tools and gear in the apartment at night to write of the “ritournelle,” or refrain in relation perform, replacing it with a highway. The New played with King Curtis and Joey Dee.”8 He protect them from theft.4 to territories, and to the exiting and re- Era, where Etta James recorded Etta James auditioned for an integrated band with a pop Hendrix attended school only entering of territories. Rocks the House in 1963 was demolished, sound, Joey Dee and the Starliters, and began sporadically. After his mother’s death, he Hendrix biographer Charles Cross among many others. The Club Baron (now touring with them. One of Hendrix’s Starliter focused on teaching himself guitar. Leon recounted a story told by Hendrix’s friend Elks Lodge) is one of the few that remain. bandmates, drummer Jimmi Mayes, another recounted the long walks he took with his and bandmate, Terry Johnson. In high school Hendrix slept in a series of windowless rooms member of Apollo Faye’s entourage, described brother to jam, and record with older blues Johnson found work at a hamburger restaurant above a beauty salon called Joyce’s House of how to pick up gigs, by regularly hanging out 22 SCAPEGOAT 10 23 Trajectories and Territories: Hendrix Soundscapes NIGHT: PASSAGES My office was whatever parking meter International Times. London nightlife brought I could find in front of the Ham and together throngs of bands and the prosody Eggs restaurant between 50th and 51th of performers uttering a range of regional streets. I would just stand there until accents. With the right connection, in a somebody recognized me when they select few Central London clubs—such as the walked by. You could run into some of Scotch in Mason’s Yard, the Bag o’ Nails, or the Coasters, some of the Drifters – the Speakeasy—a newcomer could introduce anybody might pass by—and you would a new act, playing a set at an intimate venue, just get to talking. My friend Lonnie in front of reigning rock musicians of the Youngblood had an office there, too.9 time, from Clapton to Lennon to . Hendrix’s success resulted in part from the Hendrix met a young woman working the enthusiastic support from music insiders, in street at the 24-hour Ham ‘n Eggs restaurant particular, and Paul McCartney. at Broadway and West 51st Street. He lived At the eastern end of Soho, the music In the summer of 1966, Hendrix formed a band, calling himself with her intermittently, and he may have The Roundhouse, London, once a counterculture venue, business concentrated on Denmark Street. Jimmy James fronting the Blue Flames, after meeting Randy fathered her child. He stayed wherever he was renovated by McAslan and Partners for contemporary Kink wrote comical lyrics about his Wolfe—aka —at Manny’s Guitars. The band played performances (photo credit: author). Café Wha?, a former horse stable on Macdougal between Bleecker could, with friends in midtown hotels when frustration, verging on a nervous breakdown, and West Third Streets (photo credit: author). he was not touring. When Hendrix met Curtis as a result of shoddy music business dealings, Knight in October 1965, he was staying with venting with satirical songs such as the Faye at the Hotel America, at 145 West 47th Moneygoround about getting ripped off. He Street. She remarked, “When he played recounted a slapstick skirmish scene in the the blues he had my undivided attention.”10 mazelike streets around Denmark Street, after Hendrix was avidly listening to Bob Dylan at he confronted sleazy music businessmen the time, and gravitated to the hippie scene. practiced in corruption, exploitation, and He met Linda Keith while playing a series of incompetence. Davies wrote about running off: nights at the Cheetah, a large discotheque “What followed was a Keystone-cops-style on Broadway and 53rd Street, and left the chase around the small alleyways surrounding sideman circuit to form his own band, playing Denmark Street. The police would run past Café Wha? in the dense network of folk clubs a doorway and I would emerge from the then emerging in Greenwich Village. The Keith same doorway and run off in the opposite connection led to ’ bassist Chas direction.”11 Chandler, who offered to bring Hendrix to By the spring of 1967, The Jimi Hendrix London at the end of the summer. Experience, based out of London, had released During this New York-based period, two albums and was travelling on a vaudeville- Hendrix signed several contracts, recorded a style package tour—with two shows nightly— significant number of tracks, and was awarded Regent Sounds, 4 Denmark Street, London. The Jimi Hendrix usually in British vaudeville halls, where some sole composer credits. On 27 July 1965, Experience rehearsed here in October–November 1967 (photo Hendrix enjoyed systematically upstaging the Another New York address where Hendrix stayed intermittently was credit: author). in the ground floor of his management offices, at 27 East 37 Street he signed with Henry “Juggy” Murray Jr. on other acts. Young musicians who heard The (photo credit: author). Sue Records, Inc., whose office was on 265 Experience live felt compelled to switch to the West 54th Street. A contract signed with Ed LONDON LABYRINTHS OF PROSODY new psychedelic sound right away. By June, in Midtown: Chalpin of P.P.X. Enterprises Inc. in October buzz over the guitar burning performance in Now, back in those days, everybody had was later to cause persistent legal problems. From the diffuse and regional musical Monterey propelled The Experience into a an office on Broadway. But, it wasn’t in On 30 March 1966, he signed with R.S.V.P. territories in North America, Hendrix headline position. After a last run headlining a building—it was on the sidewalk by the Music, Inc. for the track “I Ain’t Taking Care of plunged into an intensely centralized British vaudeville houses in the fall of 1967, the parking meters. You would just hang out No Business,” a tune whose lyrics are a litany London music scene, a coveted base for band was poised to embark on a grueling and a particular spot during certain hours of of the struggle of living on the street—“this rock performers. The metropolis hosted geographically nonsensical series of stadium the day, and anybody who wanted to part of the alley is my home,” he sang— for an intense musical nightlife that informed tours. As music manager Giorgio Gromelsky see you would come by. We’d just say, which he was credited as sole composer. lively music print publications, including put it, “By then the Brits had blown it. […] They “Meet you at the office!” the influential countercultural newspaper, had been seduced by the American dream 24 SCAPEGOAT 10 25 Trajectories and Territories: Hendrix Soundscapes NIGHT: PASSAGES foot pedals and a Fender Stratocaster, set up and they spent some of the time at her home was registered. Other party guests included ad-hoc in myriad venues. Thrilling Doppler at Kommune 1, a squatted factory building on some of Hendrix’s New York entourage, Stella and engine-like reverberations, futuristic Stephanstraße. Later in 1969, Hendrix wrote Douglas (then married to producer Alan roars and pops from the Hendrix set-up a tender letter to Obermaier from the Hotel Douglas), Devon Wilson, and Angie Burdon, musically fused with rhythm-and-blues Elysée in New York, dated 14 March 1969, as well as a financier and a fast-food chain structures, frosted with psychedelic feedback. wishing he had spoken more with her friends owner. Hendrix arrived at the flat (some Hendrix took the chiral object of the guitar at the commune, and asking her to contact accounts timed his arrival after midnight), and merged it with the quintessentially him in New York at his management’s 27 East and Stella Douglas had ordered Chinese food chiral hand object. His reach and inventive 37th Street address.14 with rice for him. His Opel driver buzzed for arrangement of the power trio combination him and took him back to her Notting Hill induced awe from other virtuoso guitarists. PERSISTENCE OF SOUND: ECHO, REVERB, hotel room after 3am. Hendrix was pronounced Carlos Santana marveled at his inventive DECAY dead at 12:45 p.m. on September 18 at St. musicianship and technique, citing in Mary Abbott’s Hospital on Marloes Road, particular a concert in Santa Clara in 1969. A Hendrix commissioned a recording studio Kensington.16 cosmic landscape of noise-sound featured located in a former basement nightclub on in his stunning noise outros of “I Don’t Live Eighth Street, the site of the Generation AFTERSOUNDS Today,” in the San Diego concert segment Club, where musicians gathered to jam after of the recording, Stages, of that year. By hours. Electric Lady Studio opened with a Today contemporary cities vie for the status this time Hendrix was playing the bass parts party catered by Limbo King Mike Quashie, at of “music city.” The music-focused towns of as part of his studio recording experiments, summer’s end, on August 26, 1970. That same Nashville and Austin are scrutinized because which included an intriguing interest in the night Hendrix flew off to London as a way to they attract and retain informal networks of so-called spiritual frequencies of brainwaves, finish off the night of Electric Lady’s opening footloose musicians, the key to a vibrant music using gamma waves in the 40 Hz range. party. scene. Nashville offers lively venues, cafés, Interspersed with late-night jamming Documenting Hendrix’s last day and music halls, and a population accustomed in clubs such as the Whisky a Go Go, Hendrix night roaming in London three weeks later, to stepping out at night; the city’s many 23 Brook Street, Mayfair, London. found the recorded at TTG Studios in Los Angeles in Norfolk-based researcher Tony Brown— recording studios, music labels, and publishers two-storey flat for herself and Hendrix in the summer of 1968. A photographer lived on the middle floor, and there was a shop September and October 1968. He was staying described by his editor as “a plumber by also lure a wandering performer. When Hendrix called Mr. Love on the ground floor. Next door, at 25 Brook Street, with the band and ’s Robert trade”—put together a fascinating final first landed in Nashville in the early 1960s, he was the eighteenth-century home of Handel. Both addresses eventually became the Handel Museum. In 2016, a renovation Wyatt, at a rented address, 2850 Benedict sequence of urban nocturnal wanderings, learned how to hone his guitar technique— of the building was completed to allow for public visits of the Canyon Road, the same address where the not always on foot, on the afternoon and he observed that pretty well everyone played Hendrix flat. Artist Cornelia Parker claimed a stair from the Hendrix flat that had been discarded and left in a skip, using it for Beatles had partied and tripped on LSD in evening of 17 September 1970.15 Hendrix drove guitar there, sitting out on front porches, a work entitled, “There Must Be Some Kind of Way out of Here,” 1965. Hendrix spoke of locating a spiritual base, around that day with a girlfriend in an Opel picking and playing in the evening. Hendrix in a group exhibition she curated called Found, at the Foundling Museum. Brian Dillon, “At The Foundling Museum,” London Review his electric church idea, in L.A. But in order to convertible. On his last afternoon, Hendrix met played with bassist Billy Cox in small-scale of Books 38, no. 16 (11 August 2016): 36, http://www.lrb.co.uk/ get around he needed to drive. If he drove his Phillip Harvey and two young girlfriends on clubs, such as those in Printer’s Alley. Cox v38/n16/brian-dillon/at-the-foundling-museum. own Corvette, he tended to smash it up on King’s Road, and later visited Harvey’s home also mentioned how he and Hendrix tested of making a lot of money playing music in the curvy, hilly roads. In any case, he had no at 4, Clarkes Mews, behind the King Edward out long extension cords, so he could move incredibly bad conditions like stadiums.”12 driver’s licence, and if he had the prescription VI Hospital off Beaumont Street. Harvey’s his guitar performance out the door and into lenses he needed to drive, he did not wear father was a British politician, Lord Harvey of the narrow streets.17 They experimented with URBAN NIGHTSCAPE AS SONIC FRAME them while at the wheel. Prestbury. Hendrix, Harvey and companions spatial practices to immerse Hendrix’s R&B Back in New York, Hendrix experimented Penny Ravenhill (then 19) and Canadian Anne sounds in the cityscape, integrating with the Hendrix impressed both crowds and pros with with newly developing recording technology. Day (then 16) hung out together from about sonic urban landscape. Hendrix also liked to his voluminous sound coming from minimal, At Manny’s Music, along with additional guitars, 5:30pm until 10:40pm, until Hendrix’s female connect visually with his audience, and watch if massive walls of clunky gear. While Italian he bought early synthesizer components.13 He companion and driver became angry and people moving and dancing. He preferred Futurist Luigi Russolo had composed pieces continued to tour and travel, connecting with shouted at him for an hour in the courtyard. a steamy small after-hours club, southern of music out of multiple instruments, or the hippie scene’s most notable and iconic Harvey worried that the neighbours would jukes, or a place like Steve Paul’s The Scene intonarumori, to create city noise as early as women, and was filmed with countercultural gossip and drool. Hendrix continued on to in New York, rather than a stadium such as 1913, Hendrix conjured atmospheric, sonic uber-groupie, Uschi Obermaier, leaving the party at the flat of Peter Cameron, a music Madison Square Garden—Hendrix considered a urban landscapes and aquascapes, using Berlin Kempinski Hotel on 29 January 1969. entrepreneur, in Great Cumberland Place, not stadium not a good place to hear . stacked amplifiers—Marshall stacks—some Obermaier mentioned a “three-day stand,” far from the Cumberland Hotel where Hendrix Hospitality at music venues remains a 26 SCAPEGOAT 10 27 Trajectories and Territories: Hendrix Soundscapes NIGHT: PASSAGES vital aspect of any city’s nightlife. The venues legendary_nyc_shop_mannys_ provide opportunities to shelter and nurture music. 14 Letter to Uschi nomadic performers like Hendrix. A recent Obermaier from Jimi Hendrix, panel discussion in Toronto mentioned the Axis in Ladyland photobucket, http://s106.photobucket. 1am–5am: Tokyo, value and supportive influence of a union- com/user/axisinladyland/ funded music café for emerging newcomers in media/page1.jpg.html, http:// s106.photobucket.com/ Nashville.18 Iggy Pop was recently interviewed user/axisinladyland/media/ about planning an upcoming tour, where page2.jpg.html, http://s106. photobucket.com/user/ Urban Rhythms and he described booking venues chosen not axisinladyland/media/page3. according to market size or major population jpg.html. 15 Tony Brown, Hendrix: centres, but on the basis of specific qualities The Final Days (London: Rogan of the hall, as he said, preferring “small, House 1997). 16 Some research indicates The Politics of Train beautiful theatres” and ruling out massive the time of death as not later audiences, saying “they won’t be in big than 4 a.m. While the cause of death in the case of Hendrix places.”19 To these categories, perhaps add a was said to be “inhalation of perceptive audience of discerning, empathetic vomit,” one of his close female 1 companions later noted that Schedules listeners, who cultivate the habit of regularly when he slept on his back, going out at night, more than a few times he had intermittent breathing issues. This would not have a week. The casual new friends who offer been factored into an autopsy. emerging musicians a place to stay, a take-out 17 Billy Cox, interviewed in Steven Roby and Brad meal or a friendly afterparty play an essential Schreiber, Becoming Jimi Christian Dimmer, Erez Golani Solomon and in the urban fabric, and fragments of nature role in a thriving music scene. Hendrix From Southern Brian Morris frequently offer the potential for instigating Crossroads to Psychedelic London, the Untold Story of a new, often subversive, critical interventions Musical Genius (Cambridge: Da TEMPORAL VOID into lived environments.2 However, in limiting NOTES James Story (New York: Villard Capo Press, 2010), 36. 1 Maurice Blanchot, Books, 1995), 146. 18 Toronto Music City attention to primarily spatial notions of the “Quels que soient ses 8 Timeline, Early Hendrix, panel discussion, Wavelength, At the centre of our discussion is arguably void, a more significant and influential aspect aspects, le quotidien a ce http://www.earlyhendrix.com/ including panelists Rolf trait essentiel : il ne se laisse timeline-menu. Klausener, Ayo Leilani, Daniel one of the most significant yet underexplored of major Japanese cities—the temporal pas saisir,” L'Entretien infini 9 Jimmi Mayes and V. C. Silver, Amy Terrill, 31 January voids at the heart of the major cities in rhythms that structure and inform urban (Paris: Gallimard, 1969), 357 Speek, The Amazing Jimmi 2016. One performer-panelist [translation by author]. Mayes: Sideman to the brought up issues of booking Japan: the temporal void of approximately activity—is problematically underplayed. 2 Bertrand Augst, Stars (Jackson: University of policies that scheduled local four hours, which occurs between the last As a solution to this theoretical impasse “Descartes’s Compendium on Mississippi Press, 2014), 52. artists on festival dates in the Music,” Journal of the History 10 Lithofayne Pridgon, early afternoon. She pointed train on any day and the first train of the we draw on Henri Lefebvre’s concept of of Ideas 26, no. 1 (1965): 122. interview in A film about Jimi out that it was unlikely that a following one. Many cities, including Tokyo, “rhythmanalysis” and Thrift and May on 3 Sam Shepard, “An Urban Hendrix, Joe Boyd, John Head, local urban audience would last Cowboy Returns to Broadway,” Gary Weis, directors and twelve hours to make it to the have witnessed debates in recent years about “timespace” to specifically examine the void The New York Times, 31 producers, 1973. 98 min. 10- nighttime acts. Multiple stages their competitiveness as “always on” 24- produced every twenty-four hours by the January 2016. 11 min. seemed like a better option. 4 , Jimi 11 Ray Davies, X-Ray: The The event was advertised with hour global cities. In these debates “night” regular cessation of train service in Tokyo. Hendrix: A Brother’s Story (New Unauthorized Autobiography an unarchived URL, at http:// is often characterized as a temporal void, Doing so enables us to generate an alternate York: St. Martin’s, 2012), 72. (New York: Overlook Press, wavelengthtoronto.com 5. Charles Cross, Room 1994), 280. 19 Jon Pareles, “Listen, a comparatively unproductive urban time political conception of that nightly void not Full of Mirrors: A Biography 12 William Grimes, Do You Want To Know a that might be better utilized to improve the as a spatio-temporal “other,” but instead as a of Jimi Hendrix (New York: “Giorgio Gomelsky, Impressario Secret?” Interview with Iggy Hyperion, 2005), 80. Who Gave Pop, The New York Times, 24 city’s economic position as well as urban productive instance of the dense polyrhythms 6 John Cage, How to get Their Start, Dies at 81, The Jan 2016, http://www.nytimes. experience. This article argues that such a of city living. out of the Cage, a year with New York Times, 14 January com/2016/01/24/arts/music/ John Cage, director Frank 2016, http://www.nytimes. iggy-pop-josh-homme-post- view is institutionally biased, as it marginalizes Scheffer, Euroarts, 2012, 56 com/2016/01/15/arts/music/ pop-depression.html. or ignores the everyday experiences of city INTRODUCTION min. at 37 min. Also available giorgio-gomelsky-rock- on youtube as “John Cage, producer-who-gave-the- inhabitants and is also a misunderstanding 19 Questions,” director Frank rolling-stones-their-start-dies- of the broader temporal and spatial context If one attentively observes a crowd Scheffer, Allegri Films, at 3 at-81.html. min. https://www.youtube. 13 Martin Schneider, “Jimi of “night” and the apparent void it creates. during peak times, and especially if com/watch?v=J-2TJO_ Hendrix’s Eye-Popping Receipts In urban studies, planning, and one listens to its rumour, one discerns USQQ&index=4&list=RDLUPi_ from Legendary Shop Manny’s nK3Bis accessed 12 Oct 2016. Music,” http://dangerousminds. architecture, the void is a central trope, flows in the apparent disorder and an 7 Etta James with David net/comments/jimi_hendrix_ yet it is typically understood in primarily order which is signaled by the rhythms: Ritz, Rage to Survive the Etta eye_popping_receipts_from_ spatial terms. Empty spaces, gaps, fissures chance or predetermined encounters, 28 SCAPEGOAT 10 29