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SONG FOR JIMI by Charles R. Smith Jr. Kirkus Star

SONG FOR JIMI

The Story of Guitar Legend Jimi Hendrix

by Charles R. Smith Jr. ; illustrated by Edel Rodriguez

Pub Date: Oct. 19th, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4333-8
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House

Smith gives light, air, and sound to the life story of an unparalleled musician who moved to his own rhythms.

Arranged in five multipage “verses” of poetry with an “outro” and “interlude” to reflect Hendrix’s blues, this fascinating biography offers a feast for the ear as Smith tells of Hendrix’s childhood rife with parental conflict, his mother’s traumatic departure, his father’s denigration of his music, and Hendrix’s need to escape a life of exclusion and ostracism. After flying with the Army’s Screaming Eagles, Hendrix often found himself at odds with his bands because of his individualism and drive to play solo. Smith describes him as “a git-tar magician, / a sonic tactician, / a Picasso with a pick / painting in the blues tradition.” Rodriguez’s artwork uses heavily saturated reds, yellows, and (appropriately) blues to create scenes that reveal how music-possessed Hendrix was. Whether illustrating a young Hendrix’s playing a broom as if it were a guitar or plucking “the fireworks exploding in his head,” Rodriguez’s gritty, oil-based woodblock paintings effectively capture Hendrix’s passion, drive, and genius. Smith describes wanting to conclude with a “moment of triumph…to celebrate the unique individual who inspired me.” And he does: With his “show-stopping tricks / …behind-the-back, between-the-legs, / teeth-plucking licks,” Hendrix set his guitar on fire and “showed the world / how to kiss the sky.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

This creative, impassioned, in-your-face biography is as on fire as Jimi Hendrix’s guitar.

(author's note, biographical timeline, personal playlist, discography, references) (Picture book/biography. 8-14)