{"id":193970,"date":"2025-04-20T03:30:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T03:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/african-music\/celebrating-the-south-african-producer-behind-jimi-hendrixs-studio-sound-texx-and-the-city\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T03:30:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T03:30:21","slug":"celebrating-the-south-african-producer-behind-jimi-hendrixs-studio-sound-texx-and-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=193970","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the South African producer behind Jimi Hendrix\u2019s studio sound \u2013 Texx and the City"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A phone rings, piercing a melody being idly strummed on an acoustic guitar. Fwoosh. A cigarette crackles as it\u2019s lit, followed by murmured conversation.<\/p>\n

Walking into the former bedroom of Jimi Hendrix at Handel Hendrix House, it feels like the man himself has just stepped out a few moments before. While waiting for his imminent return, I scan his Sixties sanctuary and admire this rock \u2018n roll time capsule in London\u2019s Mayfair neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

The illusion is carefully curated. The sounds I\u2019m hearing are part of a background tape attempting to recreate the atmosphere of the flat as it was from 1968 to 1969. But the scene itself is, in many ways, true to life.<\/p>\n

The room is decorated just as Hendrix and his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham kept it during the nine months they lived here, filled with Persian rugs, rich tapestries, an oval mirror above the fireplace, feathers, and a guitar resting casually on the bed. Even the bedside table is cluttered with handwritten lyrics and a pack of Benson & Hedges, ready for yet another fwoosh and another song idea to scribble down.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a strange feeling, standing in a space so intimate yet so public. Bedrooms are personal places, not usually designed for visitors, and yet here I am, invited to look around.<\/p>\n

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For fans of Hendrix, 23 Brook Street is sacred ground. But for South African fans especially, there\u2019s an added thrill: knowing that one of our own captured the chaos and creativity of Hendrix, playing to the world, both on record and on camera. And perhaps some of those guitar licks began life in this room.<\/p>\n

Cape Town-born and bred Eddie Kramer was a close confidant and conduit between Jimi\u2019s genius and the grooves etched into vinyl, ushering some of the most iconic sounds in rock history into global consciousness. And Hendrix wasn\u2019t his only client.<\/p>\n

Across a career spanning more than six decades, 83-year-old Kramer has worked with a who\u2019s who of rock royalty. His technical inventiveness turned raw sessions into timeless albums, with the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Kiss, and The Beatles leading his long list of credits. The man even engineered the entire Woodstock festival in 1969, for peace sake. But it was his work with Hendrix that became his defining collaboration.<\/p>\n

Eddie\u2019s early life in South Africa was steeped in music, with him studying classical piano, cello and violin as a child, and eventually attending the South African College of Music during his high school years to nurture his talent. At 19 years old, he moved to London and immersed himself in the rapidly evolving early-1960s recording scene, quickly finding work in renowned studios such as Pye and Olympic.<\/p>\n

He honed his sound engineering skills there and developed a keen ear for innovative recording techniques by layering sounds and experimenting with mic placement to shape sound with both precision and flair.<\/p>\n

By 1966, Kramer had caught the attention of those in Hendrix\u2019s orbit. Engineering a young Hendrix meant understanding what sonic sorcery the electric guitar wizard was hoping to achieve. What set Kramer apart wasn\u2019t just his technical proficiency, but his musical sensitivity and flexibility to the artist\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

Speaking of his first encounter with Hendrix, Kramer recalls having to think fast about how he would manage the maestro, picking microphones that gave them the best shot of capturing the enormity of that sound. Even communicating in colour seemed to do the trick with Jimi.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would turn to me and ask if I could get a green sound on his guitar and I knew exactly what he wanted, whether it was a red sound or a purple sound and I\u2019d just dial some knobs and tweak shit until I came up with something cool. Then he\u2019d come in and go \u2018Whooaah, OK!!\u2019 and run back into the studio and start tweaking his amp and his pedals.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a match made in musical heaven, and Kramer would be entrusted behind the mixing desk for all three of Hendrix\u2019s studio albums released while he was alive, as well as archiving the late-rockstar\u2019s extensive unfinished work.<\/p>\n

Some of Eddie\u2019s most delicate and devoted work with Jimi came out decades later, when he was called upon to help complete First Rays Of The New Rising Sun\u2014the posthumous album Hendrix had been working on at the time of his death in 1970.<\/p>\n

Unlike earlier compilations that were rushed to market or controversially altered by later producers, First Rays was a purist\u2019s victory and endorsed by the Hendrix estate. Released in 1997, the album was assembled from Hendrix\u2019s handwritten notes and restored master tapes, with Kramer bringing his trademark sonic sensitivity to the mix. The result is perhaps the clearest glimpse of where Jimi was headed next: a funkier, more soulful direction, with moments of psychedelic heat still glowing through.<\/p>\n

One of the album\u2019s standout tracks \u2013 \u201cNight Bird Flying\u201d \u2013 offers a window into the intricacies of
Jimi\u2019s evolving sound and the interpretation it took to find a cohesive conclusion.<\/p>\n

In a video filmed at Electric Lady Studios, Kramer\u2014seated at the very mixing desk where he pulled it all together\u2014describes the song as \u201ca virtual symphony of guitars,\u201d woven together from four distinct parts. He identifies one surprisingly delicate rhythm track as \u201cthe glue that holds it all together,\u201d then carefully layers in the overdubs, which at times \u201cfight for space\u201d but ultimately land in balance.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an act of audio archaeology and artistic intuition. \u201cThe man\u2019s mind was on so many different levels,\u201d Kramer reflects, still in awe. This spirit of sonic exploration permeates the entire Handel Hendrix House, where Jimi\u2019s bedroom and gear at number 23 sit just a few steps away from the elegant Georgian rooms at number 25, once occupied by the 18th -century German composer, George Frideric Handel.<\/p>\n

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Two artists separated by centuries but united by one Baroque \u2018n roll address, it tells a tale as old as
London itself\u2014of foreigners who arrived with dreams, found a scene, and left behind something greater than themselves.<\/p>\n

From Cape Town to Carnaby Street, Eddie Kramer dialled it in for the stars, but as he enters his 84th year this month, his heart is set on ensuring the next generation is on track too. With one hand on the faders and the other on the future, the octogenarian oracle continues to record and proudly promote young artists, while also offering sound advice at workshops and retreats about his process, from tracking to editing and mixing.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s raise a glass to Eddie: our ballie behind the beats of some of the best that ever rocked out.<\/p>\n