J. Hammer

Jan Hammer is a very interesting person in electronic music history . Born in Prague , Czechoslawakia he started to play the piano at the age of 4 !!! As a 14 year old teenager he already had his own 3 piece Jazz Combo that toured Eastern Europe . Soon he moved tot the USA , where he spent a year as musical conductor/keyboarder with Sara Vaughn . Both on stage and in the recording studio . After that he joined the MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA - John McLaughlin's JAZZ-ROCK Supergroup that consisteted of 8 Top-Notch artists , selling more than 2 million records and touring the world for a few years . His next project was a duo with Jerry Goodman , also a member of the MAhavishnu Orchestra and Leader of THE FLOCK from Chicago where he played violin in the late 60ies . Their collaberation was well received . His first real Solo Project was the 1975 album "THE FIRST 7 DAYS" , that is going to be re-released and remastered in late 2003 . Here he goes deep into the possibilies of (mainly Moog) Synthesizers and other electronic instruments . A milestone that bridges the Jazz-Rock Scene with the electronic movement . A really mindblowing piece of work , that still doesn't fail to impress today ! Next was a project with JEFF BECK . A live recorded album that moves heavy into the ROCK Side of Jazz-Rock . He continued to tour and record as The Jan Hammer Group with heavyweight artists like Neal Schon (Santana, Journey ) Al Di Meola , even Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page joined in . In the mid-eighties he started to get involved in the Soundtrack scene , which made him famous . Miami Vice was musically his brainchild . He brought that flair of modern , vivid and technologic advanced life to the series and his compositions mingled with with well chosen Pop-Songs went into 10 Soundtrack albums from MIAMI VICE , that all went platinum ... For the rest of the story click www.janhammer.com