Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell has been found dead in his Portland hotel room today.

Mitchell, the last surviving member of the original trio following bassist Noel Redding’s death in 2003, had been touring the US West Coast with a Hendrix tribute act and was due to return home to England when he was discovered by a member of staff at the Benson Hotel this morning. He was 61.

He is thought to have died of natural causes although there has yet to be an autopsy.

Mitchell was famed for his technically dazzling fusion of jazz and rock styles and struck up a chemistry with Hendrix onstage and in the studio that was pretty much unsurpassed in the history of rock.

Following Hendrix’s death in 1970 he finished production work on a number of incomplete recordings by the guitarist, resulting in the posthumous releases Cry Of Love and Rainbow Bridge.