T hroughout his career, Nigel Kennedy has had run-ins with what he calls the âself-appointed wielders of powerâ. The latest came last week, when he pulled out of a gig at the Royal Albert Hall two days before showtime, accusing organisers Classic FM of preventing him performing a Jimi Hendrix tribute, which they deemed âunsuitable for our audienceâ.
âThis is musical segregation,â he said as the news broke. âIf it was applied to people, it would be illegal. If that type of mentality is rampant in the arts, then we still havenât fixed the problem of prejudice. This is much more serious than my feathers being a bit ruffled. Prejudice in music is completely dreadful. Theyâre effectively saying that Hendrix is all right in the Marquee Club, but not in the Albert Hall.â
When I phone him a few days later at his home in the Polish mountains, the violinist is in good humour, but unrepentant. As Kennedy tells it, he was never thrilled by the station he calls Jurassic FMâs preference that he perform Vivaldiâs Four Seasons, the recording which gave him the worldâs biggest-selling classical album on its release in 1989, comparing the request to asking Deep Purple to do Smoke on the Water.
âI was very lucky to have found a piece of repertoire which struck a chord with people,â he admits, âbut itâs not a giant step for mankind for Nigel Kennedy to do that again.â Thus, as a compromise, he agreed to perform Four Seasons, with Chineke!, an orchestra of young black and ethnically diverse musicians, if he could also do Hendrixâs Little Wing in the style of pastoral composer Vaughan Williams.
âSonic possibilitiesâ ⦠Jimi Hendrix in 1967. Photograph: Ray Stevenson/Rex FeaturesâBut thereâs been one obstruction after another,â he sighs. âNo rehearsals, then having to work with a conductor when it doesnât require one and Iâve never done it with one.â Kennedy argues that as his Four Seasons predated other classical commercial blockbusters and Classic FM â that he found their audience for them. âSo itâs ironic that theyâre now telling me whatâs suitable for their audience.â
Kennedy says his participation actually halted three weeks ago, but this wasnât announced until much later â presumably amid behind-the-scenes panic. âSo it looks like the spoilt artist walking out. But Iâm standing up for the noise-makers,â he says. âIf we down tools then what are the people behind the desks going to be dealing in? Fish fingers?â He emits one of the mighty cackles that pepper our 75-minute conversation. âNot that Iâd mind. I love fish fingers.â
I actually thought of busking Hendrix's Little Wing outside the Albert Hall â but some uniform would probably move me onClassic FM have refused to comment and Chineke! â who had previously mixed genres with collaborations with Carl Craig and Stormzy, but were presumably alarmed at being caught in a ruckus between two big beasts â have said the content was Classic FMâs decision. Again, Kennedy blames âpeople behind desksâ.
âItâs not the young players. If we were in a room together weâd get on like a house on fire. I was prepared to rehearse a week with them, unpaid, give them the benefit of my experience and I would learn from them in terms of creating beautiful music.â Heâs saddened that the public wonât get to hear it. âI actually thought of busking and playing Little Wing outside the Royal Albert Hall, if they wonât let me play it inside! But then some uniform will probably move me on and say âHave you got a licence?ââ
Kennedy first interpreted Hendrix (a version of Fire) for the 1993 tribute album Stone Free (featuring the likes of the Cure and Eric Clapton) and in 1999 he released The Kennedy Experience, an album of classical explorations of Purple Haze et al.
âHendrix should be talked about like the great composers, man,â he says. âBeethoven. Bach. Duke Ellington. Stravinsky. Jimi is in that line. Serious motherfuckers!â Not Vivaldi?
Mindblowing ⦠Kennedy and Mike Stern play Hendrix at a jazz festival in Poland. Photograph: Wieslaw Jarek/AlamyâNot so much. Vivaldi is like ⦠not quite Des Oâ Connor but itâs lighter shit that people can listen to while theyâre drinking their coffee.â Ouch. Heâs laughing like a drain.
Kennedy argues that for all Hendrixâs âmind-blowingâ guitar-playing, his genius extends to composition. âThe songs he wrote and forms he took were very different ⦠more free-flowing structure, loosening of the edges. A groundbreaker.â Kennedyâs violin case contains a grainy photo of Hendrix playing one, which the late star had apparently picked up in the BBCâs Maida Vale studios during a lunch break, much to the chagrin of its owner. âFrom interviews towards the end of his life he was becoming interested in the sonic possibilities orchestras offered him,â Kennedy explains, claiming that with his own violin, he can take his heroâs music somewhere else. âKind of folk trance symphonic ⦠Iâm starting to sound like that fucker from Spinal Tap. âItâs a bit Mozart and a bit Bach and Iâm going to call it Mach.ââ
Heâs cackling, but the Classic FM ruckus cuts to the core of a near-lifelong belief that dividing music into unmixable genres is âa really puerile mentalityâ.
Brighton-born Kennedy, a world class virtuoso violinist, was just six when his music teacher mother sent him to audition at what he jokingly calls âYehudi Menuhinâs school of precocious bratsâ in Surrey, but he could have become a rocker. âI played piano, so I could have easily gone down that Deep Purple/Santana route. It just happened that the first gigs I was offered were in classical. I felt very lucky to be offered anything. It was never on a plate for anybody. It felt like winning the lottery.â
No walk-outs ⦠Kennedy played the Doctor Who theme at the 2008 Proms. Photograph: Martin Argles/The GuardianKennedy later studied at New Yorkâs Juilliard School, part-funded by busking. He was 16 when Stéphane Grappelli invited him on stage at Carnegie Hall, but his teachers told him that playing jazz would damage a classical career, so he initially refused. âThen I realised that here was this teenage precious brat telling one of the greatest violin players ever that it would be bad for me to play with him. So I got through half a bottle of Scotch, tumbled on stage and it was one of the most memorable times of my life.â Later, a record company executive said this made Kennedy âthe wrong person to play Mozartâ.
Not all his experiments have worked. As a young man, he attempted Indian music, playing before an Indian audience in Westminster Hall. âWe reached a point in the raga where it doubled time and I just couldnât remember the next bit,â he chuckles. âSo we were playing on and on. People were walking out, and not walking back in!â Heâs since played with everyone from Kate Bush to the Who and listens to everything from Led Zeppelin to the Fall.
I'm not Keith Moon blowing up toilets in hotels, but I don't like much restraintIn the 90s, he took up with theFallâs (and the Adult Netâs) singer and lead guitarist Brix Smith, after her divorce from Mark E Smith. âWe never met, but there was this antagonism between me and Mark,â he remembers, âThen he sent me a letter saying âThanks Nige, you saved me a lot of moneyâ. But Brixie was a great person to be with and I learned a lot from her. Sheâd spent a lot of time with Mark and really understood the art of songwriting.â
In Smithâs memoir, The Rise, the Fall and the Rise, she details Kennedyâs riotous behaviour, such as freewheeling cars down hills, but notes his hours of daily practice and observes: âI realised that his level of perfectionism was so intense and rigid that he had no room for any other restrictions in his life.â Kennedy admits this is a âcompletely correctâ reading of his psyche, which explains his many spats. âIâm not Keith Moon,â he insists, âblowing up toilets in hotels, but I donât like much restraint. Compared with most violinists I reckon Iâm a risk, but youâve got to try stuff or else you havenât lived.â
Now 64, Kennedyâs big regrets are that he didnât broaden from classical music sooner (it now makes up âabout 30%â of his output) and that he didnât take up an offer to join Duke Ellingtonâs band when he was 14. âIt would have made me a better musician, but my parents and tutor-benefactors didnât want to see me surrounded by loads of old codgers with brown paper bags with special bottles in them on a tour bus. Maybe if Iâd been a more strident 14-year-old and thrown chairs around Iâd have been allowed, but maybe if Iâd been in that band I wouldnât be here talking to you now.â
When he was 19, Kennedy took up boxing in the Bronx. After âshitting bloodâ after the gym bouts he soon realised he was âaverse to being hitâ, but it triggered a lifelong admiration of the sport. Thus, the cover of his forthcoming memoir, Uncensored â âa dissection of the BBC, record companies, conductors, run-ins with police and all kinds of not exactly positive shitâ â depicts him wearing boxing gloves.
âIâm quite combative,â he laughs. âIâve never minded saying what I think.â
Nigel Kennedyâs memoir and three CD box set, both titled Uncensored, are released on 4 November on Fonthill Media and Warner Classics respectively.