Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr.
(born December 23, 1940 in Washington, D.C.) is an American blues, folk and rock guitarist.
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JORMA KAUKONEN TICKETS
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Biography
Born to a
Finnish American father and a
Jewish American mother, employed by the U.S. foreign service, Kaukonen was a founding member of the popular psychedelic
San Francisco-based band
Jefferson Airplane, which scored two Top 10 radio hits in 1967 with "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit."
Kaukonen learned to play guitar as a teenager in Washington, D.C. But before moving to the DC area, Jorma and family lived in the
Philippines and other locales as he followed his father's career from assignment to assignment before returning to the place of his birth. As a teenager in Washington he and future
Jefferson Airplane bassist
Jack Casady (who at the time played six-string guitar) formed a band named The Triumphs. Kaukonen departed Washington for studies at
Antioch College where friend Ian Buchanan taught him fingerstyle guitar playing. Buchanan also introduced Kaukonen to the music of
Reverend Gary Davis, whose songs have remained important parts of Kaukonen's repertoire throughout his career.
In 1962 Kaukonen moved to the
San Francisco Bay Area and enrolled in
Santa Clara University. During this time he taught guitar lessons at Benner Music Company in
San Jose. As a self-described
blues purist, Kaukonen never had any ambition to play in a rock band. He played as a solo act in coffee houses and can be heard accompanying a young
Janis Joplin on acoustic guitar on an historic 1964 recording (known as "
The Typewriter Tapes" because of the obtrusive sound of Kaukonen's first wife Margareta typing in the background). Invited to attend a
Jefferson Airplane rehearsal by founding member
Paul Kantner, Kaukonen found his imagination excited by the arsenal of effects available to electric guitar and later said, "I was sucked in by technology."
Jorma Kaukonen is a member of the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame.
Jefferson Airplane
Kaukonen's
electric guitar work was distinctive and widely emulated by other Bay Area guitarists. Notable work with Jefferson Airplane includes "Greasy Heart", "If You Feel", "Hey Frederick" (which culminates in an extended lead guitar duet with himself), "
Wooden Ships" and his original composition, "Feel So Good".
Rolling Stone named Kaukonen the 54th greatest rock guitarist of all time and 16th greatest acoustic guitarist.
Though never a prolific singer and songwriter during his Airplane tenure, Kaukonen contributed some distinctive material. "
Embryonic Journey" showcased his fingerstyle acoustic guitar virtuosity. On the next Jefferson Airplane album,
After Bathing at Baxter's
, his playing developed a harder-edged sound inspired by
Mike Bloomfield of the
Paul Butterfield Blues Band,
Cream and other groups that visited San Francisco. These stylistic changes are prominent in the acid rocker "The Last Wall of the Castle", as well as the instrumental "Spare Chaynge", co-written with bassist Jack Casady and drummer Spencer Dryden. Clocking in at 9:12 minutes, this improvisational style was further explored on the free-form extended jams "Thing" and "Bear Melt", both live instrumentals recorded in 1968. Kaukonen insists, however, on the liner notes of the
Live at the Fillmore East
album that these jams were not chaotic "free for alls" but in fact "complex rehearsed arrangements." Two notable songs that were later to become Hot Tuna signature tunes were also recorded during the 1968–1969 period. These were the traditionals "Rock Me Baby" and the gospel ballad "
Good Shepherd".
Other original compositions with the Airplane appeared on the 1971 album
Bark
, the instrumental "Wild Turkey" and "Feel So Good", as well as the acoustic autobiographical "Third Week in the Chelsea" detailing his feelings about the disintegration of the band.
Hot Tuna and solo career
In 1969–70, Kaukonen and
Jack Casady formed
Hot Tuna, a spin-off group that allowed them to play as long as they liked. An early incarnation of
Hot Tuna included Airplane vocalist
Marty Balin and featured
Joey Covington on drums and vocals. This grouping came to an end after an unsuccessful recording jaunt to Jamaica, the sessions of which have never been released. Pared down to Kaukonen and Casady,
Hot Tuna lived on as a vehicle for Kaukonen to show off his Piedmont style acoustic
blues fingerpicking skills. The self-titled first album was all acoustic and recorded live. With the dissolution of
Jefferson Airplane in 1972,
Hot Tuna went electric, with Airplane fiddler
Papa John Creach joining for the next two albums.
Hot Tuna scored an FM hit with "Ja Da (Keep On Truckin')" from their third (and first studio) album,
Burgers
. At this time, Kaukonen's song-writing began to dominate, as further evidenced by the next album,
The Phosphorescent Rat
, which only featured one cover song. Beginning with their fifth album,
America's Choice (1974), the addition of drummer
Bob Steeler encouraged a rise in volume and a change of band personality—a rampaging,
Cream-like rock with often quasi-mystical lyrics courtesy of Kaukonen. During this period, the power trio was known for its very long live sets and instrumental jamming.
In 1974, Kaukonen recorded the first and most successful of several solo albums,
Quah
, together with
Tom Hobson. Produced by Jack Casady, and featuring (somewhat surprisingly) string overdubs on some tracks, this album contained some of Kaukonen's most deft fingerpicking work, especially on "Hamar Promenade", "Blue Prelude", "Genesis" and " Flying Clouds". The curious picture that adorns
Quah
s cover is today on display at Donkey Coffe and Espresso, a coffee shop in
Athens, Ohio.
Kaukonen toured vigorously throughout the 1970s in both the United States and Europe, but with Hot Tuna's break up in 1978, the first phase of the band's career ended. Casady left to form the new wave band "SVT", while Kaukonen released his second solo album,
Jorma
, a mix of electric guitar and acoustic fingerstyle in 1979. Meanwhile, he had formed the band "Vital Parts."
Vital Parts featured bassist Denny DeGorio, who had played in a San Francisco band called the "Offs" with ex-Hot Tuna drummer Bob Steeler. Kaukonen, experimenting with a new image, not only cut his hair but dyed it purple then bright orange, and had extensive
tattoos adorn his body, back and arms. The album
Barbeque King
was released in 1980. Kaukonen's traditional fan base did not warm to this new, perceived to be "punk" image, and sales of the album were so disappointing that Jorma was soon dropped from RCA records.
He continued playing as a solo artist throughout the 1980s at such venues as
The Chestnut Cabaret in Philadelphia, The Capitol Theater in Passaic, New Jersey and in Port Chester, New York. As in his Hot Tuna days, he played very long sets, usually beginning with an hour-long acoustic set followed by a long intermission and then a two hour electric set, sometimes accompanied by bass and drums. Hot Tuna themselves reformed in the late 1980s. At a 1988 Hot Tuna performance at the
Fillmore Auditorium, Kaukonen surprised fellow Airplane alumnus
Paul Kantner, who was sitting in, with a surprise appearance by his estranged lover
Grace Slick; the success of this performance helped to pave the way for a
Jefferson Airplane reunion tour and record in 1989.
In 1984, Kaukonen appeared on
Robert Hunter's Amagamalin Street
. This was the third album released by Relix Records, a label, founded by Les Kippel, that specialized in bands from the
San Francisco Bay Area. Relix also released
Splashdown
, featuring a rare performance by Hot Tuna on WQIV, a defunct radio station in New York. Kippel was instrumental in reuniting Kaukonen and Casady in 1985 for a Hot Tuna theater tour. Relix Records was Hot Tuna's record company until 2000, and also released
Classic Hot Tuna Acoustic
,
Classic Hot Tuna Electric
,
Live at Sweetwater
, and
Live at Sweetwater Two
.
Two notable outside projects Kaukonen played on were the
David Crosby album
If I Could Only Remember My Name
(1971) and
Warren Zevon's "Transverse City" (1989). In 1993, he collaborated with ex-
Grateful Dead keyboardist
Tom Constanten in recording numerous arrangements of "Embryonic Journey". The resulting tracks were released as an
album 1994 on the Relix label. In 1999, he played several gigs with
Phil Lesh and Friends. In 2000, he appeared with jam band
Widespread Panic during their summer tour.
With his wife Vanessa, Kaukonen currently owns and operates the
Fur Peace Ranch, a 119 acre
music and
guitar camp in the hills of southeast
Ohio, north of
Pomeroy; complete with a 32 track studio. He is currently under contract as a solo artist to Red House Records and still records and tours with
Jack Casady and other friends such as
Barry Mitterhof as Hot Tuna. His 2002 album
Blue Country Heart
, also released as a
5.1 single layer
SACD, was widely acclaimed by critics as one of the definitive examples of American "Depression Era " music and features Kaukonen backed by an all-star Nashville bluegrass band. The album was nominated for a Grammy.
Recent solo albums include
Stars in My Crown
(2007) and
River of Time
(2009).
On his website, Kaukonen writes that he is a Gibson guitar lover; his favourite acoustic guitars being the 1936 Advanced Jumbo and the J-190. Kaukonen's Thanksgiving Eve show at Keswick Theater in Glenside, Pennsylvania has become a tradition.
Solo Discography
- Quah
(1974)
- Jorma
(1979)
- Barbeque King
(1981)
- Magic
(1985)
- Too Hot to Handle
(1985)
- Embryonic Journey
(1994)
- Magic Two
(1995)
- The Land of Heroes
(1995)
- Christmas
(1996)
- Too Many Years
(1998)
- Jorma Kaukonen Trio Live
(2001)
- Blue Country Heart
(2002)
- Stars in My Crown
(2007)
- River of Time
(2009)
Other contributions
- Live at the World Café: Vol. 15 - Handcrafted
(2002, World Café) - "Blue Railroad Train"
Charity Work
- 2005 - Appears on the CD TOO MANY YEARS to benefit Clear Path International's work with landmine survivors.