Biography
Although Noel Redding earned wider recognition among the pair of bassists who supported Jimi Hendrix across his concise recording span from 1967 to 1970 because his contributions appeared on the most celebrated releases, Billy Cox had maintained a longer acquaintance and collaborative history with the guitarist. Their initial encounter occurred in 1961 during U.S. Army service at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, when Cox was drawn to guitar sounds emanating from a Service Club on the base, revealing Hendrix himself and prompting immediate jam sessions. Their nearly simultaneous military discharges soon afterward allowed the pair to establish the R&B group the King Kasuals, which secured regular performances along the Chitlin' Circuit throughout the southern black club circuit. By the mid-1960s Hendrix chose to pursue opportunities in New York City, where ex-Animals bassist Chas Chandler discovered him. When Hendrix later organized plans to assemble a band in England, he extended an invitation to Cox, who declined in favor of continuing to accompany touring R&B performers in his local area.
Hendrix achieved major commercial success as one of the era's leading rock figures by the close of the 1960s, yet by 1969 dissatisfaction with his prevailing musical path and the audience's emphasis on visual spectacle over instrumental skill prompted him to disband the Experience and pursue a larger ensemble format. He immediately contacted his longstanding associate Cox to fill the bass chair in this expanded lineup, an offer the bassist now accepted. The resulting ensemble, Gypsys, Suns, and Rainbows, assembled in upstate New York and incorporated rhythm guitarist Larry Lee, former Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, and percussionists Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez alongside the two principals. Although the configuration delivered a notable closing set at the Woodstock festival in August 1969, it disbanded before completing any studio album.
Hendrix next favored a leaner trio configuration that retained Cox on bass and added drummer Buddy Miles, forming the funk-oriented Band of Gypsys. Despite the short lifespan of this unit, the musicians captured a self-titled live album at New York's Fillmore East on New Year's Eve 1969. Following Miles's departure, Hendrix once again enlisted Mitchell, and the reconstituted trio of Hendrix, Cox, and Mitchell commenced tracking material for the guitarist's long-anticipated fourth studio album at the still-unfinished Electric Lady studio. Throughout the summer the group maintained a schedule of festival and arena engagements across the United States and Europe while targeting completion of the project, then bearing the working title First Rays of the New Rising Sun, by year's end.
Hendrix's death in England on September 18, 1970, occurred just short of his twenty-eighth birthday. In the ensuing years Cox performed with the Charlie Daniels Band as well as on session dates and live appearances. He remains active, notably within the Hendrix tribute group the Gypsy Sun Experience that also features former bandmate Mitchell on drums and Gary Serkin on guitar; in the late 1990s the Cort guitar company issued a Billy Cox "Freedom" model bass in his honor. Beyond the Band of Gypsys album, his bass work appears on the posthumous Hendrix releases South Saturn Delta, Live at Woodstock, Live at the Fillmore East, and the reconstructed First Rays of the New Rising Sun, together with video documents such as Live at the Isle of Wight 1970, Live at Woodstock, The Dick Cavett Show, Rainbow Bridge, and Jimi Hendrix, among additional titles.
Hendrix achieved major commercial success as one of the era's leading rock figures by the close of the 1960s, yet by 1969 dissatisfaction with his prevailing musical path and the audience's emphasis on visual spectacle over instrumental skill prompted him to disband the Experience and pursue a larger ensemble format. He immediately contacted his longstanding associate Cox to fill the bass chair in this expanded lineup, an offer the bassist now accepted. The resulting ensemble, Gypsys, Suns, and Rainbows, assembled in upstate New York and incorporated rhythm guitarist Larry Lee, former Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, and percussionists Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez alongside the two principals. Although the configuration delivered a notable closing set at the Woodstock festival in August 1969, it disbanded before completing any studio album.
Hendrix next favored a leaner trio configuration that retained Cox on bass and added drummer Buddy Miles, forming the funk-oriented Band of Gypsys. Despite the short lifespan of this unit, the musicians captured a self-titled live album at New York's Fillmore East on New Year's Eve 1969. Following Miles's departure, Hendrix once again enlisted Mitchell, and the reconstituted trio of Hendrix, Cox, and Mitchell commenced tracking material for the guitarist's long-anticipated fourth studio album at the still-unfinished Electric Lady studio. Throughout the summer the group maintained a schedule of festival and arena engagements across the United States and Europe while targeting completion of the project, then bearing the working title First Rays of the New Rising Sun, by year's end.
Hendrix's death in England on September 18, 1970, occurred just short of his twenty-eighth birthday. In the ensuing years Cox performed with the Charlie Daniels Band as well as on session dates and live appearances. He remains active, notably within the Hendrix tribute group the Gypsy Sun Experience that also features former bandmate Mitchell on drums and Gary Serkin on guitar; in the late 1990s the Cort guitar company issued a Billy Cox "Freedom" model bass in his honor. Beyond the Band of Gypsys album, his bass work appears on the posthumous Hendrix releases South Saturn Delta, Live at Woodstock, Live at the Fillmore East, and the reconstructed First Rays of the New Rising Sun, together with video documents such as Live at the Isle of Wight 1970, Live at Woodstock, The Dick Cavett Show, Rainbow Bridge, and Jimi Hendrix, among additional titles.
Albums
