Before he was an international superstar, Jimi Hendrix spent a year on Nashville’s Jefferson Street. It’s a chapter in Hendrix’s musical life that many biographers gloss over. In our latest episode of Curious Nashville, we explain why he came here — and what it says today about the city’s most prominent African-American neighborhood.

Our question comes from Curious Nashville listener Joe Gramelspacher:

I understand that Jimi Hendrix played on Jefferson Street. What is the musical history of Jefferson Street?

This piece includes interviews with:

• Fisk University historian Reavis Mitchell
• Bass guitarist and Hendrix collaborator Billy Cox
• Vocalist Frank Howard
• Jefferson Street Sound owner Lorenzo Washington
• Country Music Hall of Fame editor Michael Gray
• Poet and restaurateur Jennifer Carpenter