# Hendix's Purple Haze Transcriptions: Kronos Quartet v Nigel Kennedy



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Which do you prefer?

Here's Kronos






Here's Nigel Kennedy






And here's the original


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

The Kronos version is quite lame, so I opted for Nigel. However, there's nothing like the original.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Bulldog said:


> The Kronos version is quite lame, so I opted for Nigel. However, there's nothing like the original.


Same for me.-----


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Go Kronos! Heard this around 1995 and thought it was awesome  Nigel tries to play guitar I think.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

They both suck. Kronos are clueless about playing blue notes, the Kennedy just pointlessly and ineptly mutilates it.


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## gregorx (Jan 25, 2020)

Kennedy goes to the trouble to make his violin sound like a guitar, then butchers the whole thing. At least Kronos attempted it sans rock band accompaniment.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Oh what a miserable choice we are stuck with.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

With respect, I think y'all are missing the point. The Kronos Quartet performance is not meant to compare with the Hendrix version, Nigel Kennedy is aiming more for that - the Kronos are treating the music of Hendrix no differently than that of Beethoven.

I am a huge fan of the Kronos Quartet recordings. I hadn't heard the Nigel Kennedy version, and frankly, I wish he had taken a different approach.


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## gregorx (Jan 25, 2020)

SanAntone said:


> With respect, I think y'all are missing the point. The Kronos Quartet performance is not meant to compare with the Hendrix version, Nigel Kennedy is aiming more for that - the Kronos are treating the music of Hendrix no differently than that of Beethoven.
> 
> I am a huge fan of the Kronos Quartet recordings. I hadn't heard teh Nigel Kennedy version, and frankly, I wish he had taken a different approach.


Yes, it is a different treatment, but the Kronos has a back beat, that cello player is a rhythm section all by herself. Kennedy was just showing that he could be guitar hero and on that _he_ missed the point; Hendrix music and playing was not about virtuoso guitar.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Here's another version by Robert Dick, a man I've had the pleasure of meeting and hearing in concert. Up close, actually, as he asked me to turn pages for him. He was a composition student of Ezra Laderman at Yale, and a flute student of Julius Baker. Like Kronos and Kennedy, he does his characteristic thing. But unlike them, he makes no attempt at imitation, not surprisingly as it likely wouldn't be practical on solo flute. Rather, he approaches it as a composer, which is what he primarily is, and uses multiphonics and other techniques he's mastered, or even invented, to produce a hazy, surreal atmosphere, as one finds in the original.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I recall hearing the Kronos version of Steve Riffkin's arrangement of "Purple Haze" via a Nonesuch vinyl disc some decades ago. It did not, at the time, prompt me to throw out my Jimi Hendrix record collection. If I get desperate for shelf space, I'll certainly discard my Kronos discs before I touch the Hendrix wax.

As for the Kennedy.... The performance would certainly have improved had Nigel used his Stradivari, 'La Cathédrale' (1707) rather than that infernal Violectra electric violin.

Then again, Hendrix played a left-handed guitar. Maybe that's the secret. Both the Kronos performers and Nigel Kennedy are assuredly right-handed players with right-handed instruments. 

Sometimes it's all in the direction one goes.


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## gregorx (Jan 25, 2020)

SONNET CLV said:


> I recall hearing the Kronos version of Steve Riffkin's arrangement of "Purple Haze" via a Nonesuch vinyl disc some decades ago. It did not, at the time, prompt me to throw out my Jimi Hendrix record collection. If I get desperate for shelf space, I'll certainly discard my Kronos discs before I touch the Hendrix wax.
> 
> As for the Kennedy.... The performance would certainly have improved had Nigel used his Stradivari, 'La Cathédrale' (1707) rather than that infernal Violectra electric violin.
> 
> ...


I believe Hendrix played a right handed Stratocaster turned upside down and re-strung. Because it was a right handed instrument, the bridge was slanted in the opposite direction for a left handed player. A musician could explain it better, but it apparently resulted in a unique sound.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I don't hear the point of the Kronos approach although I can imagine it working in a film. Kennedy's effort follows a jazz method and does create something new. I quite liked it.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

gregorx said:


> I believe Hendrix played a right handed Stratocaster turned upside down and re-strung. Because it was a right handed instrument, the bridge was slanted in the opposite direction for a left handed player. A musician could explain it better, but it apparently resulted in a unique sound.


Technically, that's correct.
The guitar was initially a right-handed Strat. Jimi restrung it, reversing the strings so that when he held the guitar in left-handed player style (fretboard to his right) the thick E string was on the top (towards his head) and the thin E string was on the bottom (towards his feet), which turns the guitar into a left-handed instrument, though the scrolled headstock is awkward looking as is the pickguard, which generally is at the lower side of the guitar and not the upper side. Still, essentially it was a left-handed guitar functionally.

There are left-handed players who don't bother to restring. They will play with the thick E string on the down side and the thin E string on the up side. Albert King is perhaps the most famous player of this technique.

Too, there are left-handers who play the right-handed guitar (strung in the normal way) right-handed. I believe Elvis Costello, Johnny Winters, and Mark Knopfler fit in this category. As does my own son, a southpaw who plays a right-handed, right-hand strung guitar right-handed, though he does everything else lefty. It may be that when he was young and began strumming on one of my instruments, attempting to imitate me, he never noticed what he was actually doing. In any case, he more than imitated me; he became quite an accomplished player, always with the standard right-handed guitar.

I think Paul McCartney is a righty who chooses to play left-handed strung instruments.

I do recall when I was quite young and picked up my first guitar that I thought it should be better played with my right hand on the fret board, since that was where all of the action seemed to be. Someone kept correcting me to do it the other way round, even though my left hand was awkward on the fretboard. I was a strong right handed at the time. Now that I finger pick classical and jazz pieces I realize the value of the right hand on the body of the instrument; and my left hand has developed some familiarity with the fretboard. But I can understand how leftys, back in the day when left-handed guitars were rare, would play the right-handed guitar in either regular style, flipped over style, or, Hendrix-wise, with a restringing that made the right-handed guitar into a left-handed vehicle.

What's the story on other string instruments, like violins, violas, and cellos? I know there are left-handed violins and players, but they probably don't fit well into the string section of an orchestra. But I don't know much about this topic.

I always did suspect, however, that a French horn is a left-handers trumpet. As for drummers, I don't know how they handle the left-right, right-left stuff. But, they're drummers.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Which hand has the most need for control and nuance with the guitar?


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I think this record is better than either of the two choices.

_Fiction_
*Quatuor Ebene *












> Described by the New York Times as "a string quartet that can easily morph into a jazz band" the Quatuor Ébène presents a program of 16 pop and jazz tracks, with guest appearances from a quartet of female stars: soprano Natalie Dessay, jazz singer Stacey Kent, film icon Fanny Ardant and Spanish pop star Luz Casal.
> 
> "In everything we have been willing to do musically - during all that time spent practicing Haydn, Beethoven or Bartók - there has always been a concealed dream of improvising and creating a new approach to playing string quartet," confess the members of the multi-award-winning Quatuor Ébène. Fiction album brings that dream out into the open.
> 
> ...


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

SanAntone said:


> I think this record is better than either of the two choices.
> 
> _Fiction_
> *Quatuor Ebene *


But no purple haze!


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Mandryka said:


> But no purple haze!


Correct, but the same kind of idea.


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## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

The words "Excuse me, while I kiss the sky"--have to be in whatever version of Purple Haze I listen to. So, I agree with Edward Bast, "they both suck", & voted for neither.

If forced to pick an alternative version, I'd choose The Cure's live version, who at least succeed in making Purple Haze sound like it was written by Robert Smith:






Frank Zappa is interesting, too:





& Jaco Pastorius (among non-vocal versions): 




The Kronos & the Nige are wanna be rockers.

For me, there was only one Jimi Hendrix.

By the way, this was the slang name of the football team at my university. Which may explain why they couldn't win any games...


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

SanAntone said:


> Correct, but the same kind of idea.


Well, if you can post about them, I can post this version of Hey Joe. I find it interesting that the Turtle Island Quartet has been able to maintain their distinctive sound all these years despite the personnel changes. That's really a testament to the talent and vision of David Balakrishnan.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Where was the "Neither" option in the poll?

I will agree, they both suck.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

fluteman said:


> Well, if you can post about them, I can post this version of Hey Joe. I find it interesting that the Turtle Island Quartet has been able to maintain their distinctive sound all these years despite the personnel changes. That's really a testament to the talent and vision of David Balakrishnan.


Well if you can post that I can post Cassandra Miller's transcription of Kurt Cobain singing Where did you sleep last night


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Well, that isn't a Hendrix song, but, OK, especially since you've given me a great idea for a thread topic: If You Can Post That --


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

gregorx said:


> I believe Hendrix played a right handed Stratocaster turned upside down and re-strung. Because it was a right handed instrument, the bridge was slanted in the opposite direction for a left handed player. A musician could explain it better, but it apparently resulted in a unique sound.


I knew a homeless guy who did this.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Mandryka said:


> Which do you prefer?


Both.

I can truly say, this song changed my life.

Amazing sound for 1967. Amazing cover photo.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Josquin13 said:


> The words "Excuse me, while I kiss the sky"--have to be in whatever version of Purple Haze I listen to. So, I agree with Edward Bast, "they both suck", & voted for neither.
> 
> If forced to pick an alternative version, I'd choose The Cure's live version, who at least succeed in making Purple Haze sound like it was written by Robert Smith:
> 
> ...


wow, I have to save these videos to watch/listen when I am in front of one of my big systems.

This will be fun!


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Josquin13 said:


> The words "Excuse me, while I kiss the sky"--have to be in whatever version of Purple Haze I listen to. So, I agree with Edward Bast, "they both suck", & voted for neither.
> 
> If forced to pick an alternative version, I'd choose The Cure's live version, who at least succeed in making Purple Haze sound like it was written by Robert Smith:
> 
> ...


Back when many pro cyclists were 'doping' with synthetic EPO, a drug that increases the oxygen carrying capacity of red blood cells and can greatly increase athletic endurance, one of them made up a parody song about it to the tune of Purple Haze, beginning something like, "I am feeling / kind of strange. I have EPO / in my veins." But the best line by far was, "Excuse me while I pass this guy."


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

fluteman said:


> Back when many pro cyclists were 'doping' with synthetic EPO, a drug that increases the oxygen carrying capacity of red blood cells and can greatly increase athletic endurance, one of them made up a parody song about it to the tune of Purple Haze, beginning something like, "I am feeling / kind of strange. I have EPO / in my veins." But the best line by far was, "Excuse me while I pass this guy."


Here it is:

EPO all in my veins

Lately things just don't seem the same

Actin' funny, but I don't know why

'Scuse me while I pass this guy


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

This kind of thing doesn't interest me much, when I want Hendrix I listen to Hendrix, its the same with rock music in general. When I'm in the mood for classical music I listen to classical. They appeal to me in different ways. I think a classical ensemble doing rock is generally about as effective as when rock musicians attempt classical. 

There was one occasion I was at a concert of classical music and the pianist performed a transcription of a Radiohead song as an encore and it sounded good. However I suspect the reason this worked more effectively is because one of the members of Radiohead is also a classical composer, and they are kind of a genre bending group I wouldn't really describe as pure rock.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I listen to these kinds of things as if I've never heard any other version. To me it is interesting to treat music far removed from the Classical tradition as if it were written in that style, and the Kronos recording is enjoyable to me. I've not spent any time with the Nigel Kennedy performance, but from the sample I heard it was too derivative of the original to offer anything new.


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