Jimi Hendrix was a big fan of Curtis Mayfield's guitar playing and Jimi often played covers of The Impressions songs during Jimi's days on the Chitlin Circuit and at Cafe Wha as a struggling musician trying to earn a living as a guitar player. If you listen to Jimi's playing on songs like "Have You Ever Been To Electric Ladyland", "Wait Until Tomorrow", "Angel", "Drifting", you cna hear Curtis Mayfield's influence on Jimi as a rhythm guitarist. In Jimi's lifetime, he struggled to connect to an audience that he came from. With Jimi's first 3 albums with The Experience, for many reasons, Jimi's music alienated many Black listeners who generally listened to rhythm and blues, gospel, jazz and Black pop. Curtis Mayfield as a songwriter could have wrote songs for Jimi that could have done what Jimi attempted with Band Of Gypsys much more quickly and he would have the best of both worlds: a permanent standing in the world of rock music, good standing with rock critics and his music which is really soul and funk propelled by Jimi's unique playing and ideas being the bedrock of Black music going into the '70s and onward.