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perhaps no other rock-and-roll trailblazer was as original or as influential in such a short span of time as . Widely acknowledged as one of the most daring and inventive virtuosos in rock history, Hendrix pioneered the electric guitar (he played a right- handed ....

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.... his back and left home to enlist in the 101st Division of the Air Force (the "Screaming Eagles"), where he served as a parachute jumper until an injury led to his discharge. Hendrix then began working as a session guitarist under the name Jimmy James, playing behind such marquee acts as Sam Cooke, Ike and Tina Turner, and the Isley Brothers. After gigging extensively with Little Richard in 1964, Hendrix became entangled in a contract dispute with the mercurial artist and left to form his own band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. With the exception of an obscure single, "My Diary," with Rosa Lee Parks, none of the music Hendrix cut with other artists ....