Hundreds Experience Jimi Hendrix Way Unveiling in West Village

Move over Rover, and let Jimi take over! That playful aside, from the song “Fire” on the 1967 debut album of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, might well apply to the ecstatic feelings shared by the hundreds of people who descended on the southeast corner of Sixth Avenue and West 8th Street to witness the unveiling of Jimi Hendrix Way on the late morning of June 10.

Manhattan politicians present for the ceremony included District 2 Council Member Harvey Epstein; Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who wore a blue sportscoat and orange tie in honor of the Knicks; and Assemblymember Grace Lee, who wore a white and orange Knicks hat. Jimi Hendrix’s sister, Janie, who now runs her brother’s estate was present, as was legendary songwriter Valerie Simpson; one of Hendrix’s greatest musical inheritors, guitarist and Living Colour bandleader, Vernon Reid; lifetime Hendrix fan, musician and activist, Steven Van Zandt; and legendary recording engineer, Eddie Kramer. The date, Janie observed, would have been the 107th birthday of their father, Al.

Efforts to honor Jimi in this locale date to the years just after the revered musician’s death on September 18, 1970. Born in Seattle and raised there until he joined the Army in May 1961, Hendrix became a paratrooper though, plainly disinterested in military life, he was honorably discharged in June 1962. Already a skilled guitarist, he was hired by numerous rhythm & blues bands, which subsequently fired him.

By 1966, Hendrix had settled in Greenwich Village, and gotten a residency as Jimmy Jams & the Blue Flames at the Cafe Wha? at 115 Macdougal Street. Having caught the attention of numerous people, by that autumn, Hendrix was in London, where he formed a group with two Englishmen, bassist Noel Redding, and drummer Mitch Mitchell. He called it the Jimi Hendrix Experience. By years’ end, the band had released two singles and blown away everyone who saw them live. Their debut album, “Are You Experienced,” which came out in May in the U.K. and August in the U.S., changed music history forever.

For those whom Hendrix is more icon than human, besides the four albums released in his lifetime, concert film of the musician will be revelatory, including footage from: the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock (especially “The Star Spangled Banner”); the Fillmore East on Second Avenue and East 6th Street (especially “Machine Gun”), Maui, especially “Voodoo Child,” later also covered by Stevie Ray Vaughan as homage to one of his heroes.

The road to Jimi Hendrix Way starts in 1968, when the musician and his manager bought a plain three-story commercial building at 52 W. 8th St. that had recently been home The Generation Club, and before that The Village Barn. This would become Hendrix’s recording studio, Electric Lady. Hendrix moved to 59 West 12th St. in 1969 and the studio opened in mid-1970. Hendrix recorded there, prolifically, for about ten weeks before his death.

The studio lived on, however, and an extraordinary number of now classic albums were recorded in whole or in part there, including, in the 1970s: Stevie Wonder, Billy Cobham, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and the Rolling Stones. More recent Electric Lady luminaries include D’Angelo, Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift.

Efforts to honor Hendrix with a street a co-naming attracted the New York Times’ attention in 2017 and bore visible fruit in August 2024, when a temporary Jimi Hendrix Way was unveiled in front of the Electric Lady studio, Janie Hendrix, Steven Van Zandt and Eddie Kramer were there.

That December, a lengthy bill, Intro. 1153, formally Naming of 109 Thoroughfares and Public Places, was presented to the City Council Committee on Parks and Recreation. Among the 109 was Jimi Hendrix Way, which had been introduced by Council Member Carlina Rivera. Other Manhattan street namings included those for Dr. Maya Angelou; Dick Ravitch; Fatman Scoop and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The bill passed in January 2025 but after Rivera resigned her seat that August, the official renaming ceremony was delayed. A previously announced unveiling date of February 24 was postponed.

Crosstown Traffic

While Harvey Epstein handled his role as emcee affably and Grace Lee won the crowd over with her Knicks hat, the straitlaced-looking Brad Hoyman-Sigal surprised many with hip Hendrix song-referencing routine that went: “I’m a little late because I was on a bus stuck in ‘Crosstown Traffic,’ sitting next to a ‘Foxy Lady.’ I mean this woman, she had no social mores, she was vaping in a ‘Purple Haze’ and out of the blue, she asked me, ‘Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)?” Move over, Rover, and let the Beep take over!

Steven Van Zandt, who took the makeshift stage with his wife Maureen, was very much the rock star, resplendent in shades of purple. They were there not just as fans but to announce that Hendrix had been to their free Teach Rock educational initiative.

Though he’s one of most erudite musicians one could hope to meet, Vernon Reid is also a Brooklyn-raised streets guy, exhortatory and comic, and wearing a bright red shirt and camouflage and orange Knicks hat he began: ”What’s up New York, what’s up? Go Knicks! Go Knicks! Go Knicks!” Then came brief Hendric biography:

“Jimi Hendrix got fired by Curtis Knight. Jimi Hendrix got fired by King Curtis. Jimi Hendrix was fired by Don Covay. Jimi Hendrix was fired by the Isley Brothers. Jimi Hendrix was fired by Little Richard. And what did he do? He never stopped being himself. He played in this neighborhood. This is the neighborhood that made Jimi Hendrix... Jimi was on the left coast, but he came here and made it happen. So it’s a great honor to be the unveiling of Jimi Hendrix Way.”

“Two days ago we said goodbye to an iconic musician, James ‘Blood’ Ulmer. In 2003, I produced a [’Blood’] blues record, ‘No Escape from the Blues,’ at Electric Lady Studios, so this is real. When they tore down the original façade, I was pissed! The original façade should have been landmarked! But money poured. This isn’t about money. This is about dreams. And the question is, is New York still a place where our dreams can come true?”