Czech-American musician
Jan Hammer
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Jan Hammer in 1977
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Birth name
| Jan Hammer
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Born
| (
1948-04-17
)
17 April 1948
(age 76)
Prague
,
Czechoslovakia
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Genres
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Occupation(s)
| - Musician
- composer
- record producer
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Instrument(s)
| - Keyboards
- drums
- synthesizer
- keytar
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Years active
| 1968?present
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|
Website
| janhammer
.com
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Musical artist
Jan Hammer
(
Czech pronunciation:
[?jan
??am?r]
) (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer.
[1]
He rose to prominence while playing keyboards with the
Mahavishnu Orchestra
during the early 1970s, as well as with his
film scores
for television and film including "
Miami Vice Theme
" and "
Crockett's Theme
", from the 1980s television program
Miami Vice
. He has continued to work as both a musical performer and producer.
Hammer has collaborated with some of the era's most influential jazz and rock musicians such as
John McLaughlin
,
Jeff Beck
,
Billy Cobham
,
Al Di Meola
,
Mick Jagger
,
Carlos Santana
,
Stanley Clarke
,
Tommy Bolin
,
Neal Schon
,
Steve Lukather
,
John Abercrombie
and
Elvin Jones
. He has composed and produced at least 14 original motion picture soundtracks, the music for 90 episodes of
Miami Vice
and 20 episodes of the television series
Chancer
.
His compositions have won him two
Grammy Awards
.
[2]
Biography
[
edit
]
Early life
[
edit
]
Jan Hammer was born in
Prague
, then capital of
Czechoslovakia
(now the Czech Republic).
[2]
His mother was
Vlasta Pr?chova
, a well-known Czech singer, and his father was a doctor who worked his way through school playing
vibraphone
and bass guitar. Hammer began playing the piano at the age of four and his formal instruction started two years later.
[2]
He aspired to follow his father into medicine until a family friend convinced him to develop his musical talents instead. Hammer formed a jazz trio in high school, performing and recording throughout Eastern Europe at the age of fourteen.
[2]
Upon entrance to the Prague Academy of Musical Arts, he completed many compulsory classes including
harmony
,
counterpoint
,
music history
, and classical
composition
.
When the
Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia
on 20 August 1968, Hammer's studies at the Academy were cut short. Hammer recorded a jazz trio live album at "The Domicile" in Munich on 30 August 1968. This was released as
Malma Maliny
by the German label MPS Records. Hammer decided to move to the United States and resolved to become a citizen after receiving a scholarship at
Berklee School of Music
in
Boston
.
[2]
Upon completion of his studies, Hammer spent a year touring with
Sarah Vaughan
, recorded with
Elvin Jones
and
Jeremy Steig
, then moved to
New York City
and joined the original lineup of the
Mahavishnu Orchestra
with guitarist
John McLaughlin
, violinist
Jerry Goodman
, bassist
Rick Laird
, and drummer
Billy Cobham
in 1971.
[2]
[3]
A successful
jazz fusion
band, they performed some 530 shows before their farewell concert on 30 December 1973. Hammer was an early pioneer of playing the Minimoog
Moog synthesizer
in a live setting.
Hammer joined
Billy Cobham
,
Leland Sklar
,
Tommy Bolin
and additional personnel on Billy Cobham's debut solo album,
Spectrum
released in 1973. After recording albums with Goodman and
John Abercrombie
(ECM session
Timeless
with
Jack DeJohnette
) in 1974,
[1]
Hammer's solo career began with the release of
The First Seven Days
(1975).
[2]
He produced and recorded the album at Red Gate Studio, which he'd built in his upstate New York farmhouse and which has been the location of his recordings ever since.
In 1976, he featured with jazz/rock guitarist
Jeff Beck
on Beck’s
RIAA
platinum album
Wired
, produced by
George Martin
.
[1]
A tour featuring songs from
Wired
and
Blow By Blow
ensued resulting in the
Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live
album, a chronicle of their 117-show tour which was certified gold.
The Jan Hammer Group was also formed in 1976 and supported
The First Seven Days
on tour, receiving good reviews from both
jazz
and
rock
critics. The group turned out two LPs
Oh, Yeah?
and
Melodies
.
Hammer composed music for the Czech cinematic fairy-tale
The Incredibly Sad Princess
.
Late 1970s and early 1980s
[
edit
]
In 1977, Hammer recorded
Elegant Gypsy
with
Al Di Meola
.
Casino
,
Splendido Hotel
and
Electric Rendezvous
followed. He then joined Di Meola for a tour chronicled the same year on
Tour De Force - Live
; and finally appeared throughout
Scenario
, using a
Fairlight CMI
digital synthesizer and contributing to more than half of the album's compositions.
During the mid 70s to early 80s he also recorded and played with
Joni Mitchell
,
Billy Cobham
,
Santana
,
Tommy Bolin
,
Harvey Mason
and
Stanley Clarke
.
Hammer also returned to solo work with the release of
Black Sheep
in 1978.
[2]
He then formed a new band, known as "Hammer".
[2]
Also in 1978, he wrote and performed on three songs for Jeff Beck's next album,
There and Back
, which was released in 1980.
[1]
One of the album tracks, "Star Cycle," went on to become the theme for the British television series
The Tube
.
He formed Schon & Hammer, a duo with ex
Santana
and
Journey
guitarist
Neal Schon
, that recorded
Untold Passion
in 1981 and
Here to Stay
in 1982.
Hammer took the stage with Jeff Beck in December 1983 for the nine U.S. benefit concerts that raised money for
Ronnie Lane
's A.R.M.S. (Action Research into Multiple Sclerosis), featuring
Jimmy Page
,
Eric Clapton
,
Joe Cocker
and a host of others. Into 1984, his various talents were employed on recordings as diverse as
James Young
's (
Styx
) first solo album,
City Slicker
, for which he co-wrote and produced;
John Abercrombie
's
Night
;
[1]
Mick Jagger
's first solo album,
She's the Boss
; and Jeff Beck's
Flash
which included Hammer's song "Escape", winner of the 1985
Grammy
award for "
Best Rock Instrumental Performance
".
Miami Vice
and successes
[
edit
]
Hammer's original scores for three major motion pictures complement a long list of credits for documentaries,
television movies
in the U.S., commercials, and
station identifications
. But his greatest challenge came in the fall of 1984, when the producers of
Miami Vice
enlisted him to commence the rigorous weekly schedule of scoring the series.
[3]
The popular success of his music on the series was evident after just one season when, on 2 November 1985, the
Miami Vice Soundtrack
hit number one on the
Billboard
Top Pop album charts.
[2]
The album achieved quadruple-platinum status with U.S. sales of more than four million copies.
At the Grammy awards in February 1986, "Miami Vice Theme" earned Hammer two awards; one for "
Best Pop Instrumental Performance
" and one for "
Best Instrumental Composition
".
[2]
He also earned
Emmy
award nominations in 1985 and 1986, for "Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition". At the end of 1986, Hammer won
Keyboard Magazine
's
poll as "Best Studio Synthesist" for a second consecutive year. He had previously won the "Best Lead Synthesist" honor for seven years, at which time he was inducted into the Keyboard Hall of Fame.
In 1988, Hammer bowed out of full-time musical chores for
Miami Vice.
The theme song he composed remained in use until the show ended its five-season run in 1989.
The first project to spring from the new Red Gate was Hammer's original soundtrack for
Clinton and Nadine
for
HBO Films
.
Hammer's next two assignments contributed greatly to his next album. First, at the end of the summer, he was commissioned to compose and perform a theme entitled "The Runner" for a major series of television advertisements in England that starred
Bob Geldof
. Second, Hammer composed and performed the theme music for the top-rated new bi-weekly pan-European television series,
Eurocops
,
[1]
which premiered in seven countries that November.
Snapshots
was the first full album from the new Red Gate studio in 1989, with Hammer composing, performing and producing every track.
[2]
The promo video for "Too Much to Lose," the album's first European single, featured
Jeff Beck
,
David Gilmour
of
Pink Floyd
, and
Ringo Starr
.
The 1990s
[
edit
]
In the early 1990s, Hammer toured with drummer Tony Williams. Notably, they featured as Jan Hammer / Tony Williams Group on July 4, 1991, at Spectrum de Montreal (
Montreal International Jazz Festival
). The show was documented on both DVD and audio CD.
The 1990s saw a renewed focus on scoring, starting with
I Come in Peace
(a.k.a.
Dark Angel
, composed in 1989 but released in 1990),
Curiosity Kills
and all twenty episodes of the British television series,
Chancer
, several episodes of
HBO
's
Tales from the Crypt
; a television spot for
Amnesty International
, featuring Czech president
Vaclav Havel
, two pilots for
NBC
,
Knight Rider 2000
and
News at 12
,
The Taking of Beverly Hills
(
Columbia Pictures
) and
New Line Cinema
's
Sunset Heat
.
"Crockett's Theme" was re-released with Hammer's theme tune for
Chancer
in the UK in 1991,
[1]
after the former featured in a series of commercials for
NatWest
.
Hammer's next project was as composer and performer of the original score for the Miramar Productions video album,
Beyond the Mind's Eye
.
[2]
In late 1993 (and through 2000) Hammer was commissioned to compose all the original music for
TV Nova
, the first commercial television network in Eastern Europe, based in his native
Czech Republic
, which had its launch on February 4, 1994. He composed everything?including themes for 23 original shows produced by the network, 50 separate station ID's, the music for all of the network's special broadcasts, plus the music for all the news, sports and weather programs.
1994 saw Hammer recording
Drive
, his first full-fledged album of original new non-soundtrack material under his name in several years.
[2]
He was reunited with longtime partner Jeff Beck on "Underground", reminiscent of their collaborations of the past.
In 1995, Hammer returned to his scoring and soundtrack work. He began with the one-hour Universal drama
Vanishing Son
, then went on to compose the theme and score for 13 episodes of the series. He composed and performed the original music for two feature films, both released in 1996:
A Modern Affair
and
In the Kingdom of the Blind the Man with One Eye Is King
. Hammer wrapped up the year scoring
Beastmaster III: The Eye of Braxus
.
In 1996, Hammer's scoring assignments included the NBC Movie of the Week,
The Babysitter's Seduction
,
The Secret Agent Club
, and
The Corporate Ladder
.
In 1997, Hammer also composed the hard-driving rock soundtrack for the new CD-ROM game,
Outlaw Racers
(MegaMedia). His next project was the theme and original music score for the pilot and the series of
Prince Street
.
Hammer started off 1999 by writing, performing and producing a tune, "Even Odds" for Jeff Beck's latest album
Who Else!
(Epic). Also, 1999 saw the release of
The Lost Trident Sessions
, the third (and last) studio album from his former group, the
Mahavishnu Orchestra
. The album was recorded in 1973 just prior to the band's breakup.
2000 to present
[
edit
]
Hammer produced the original score for
Cocaine Cowboys
, a 2006 documentary depicting the infamous Miami drug trade scene of the 1980s. Hammer's soundtrack of the film was released in 2007.
Also in the autumn of 2004 Hammer released the album
The Best of Miami Vice
on the Reality label in the U.S.
The Best of Miami Vice
contains newly recorded versions of "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", as well as one bonus track never before released on CD.
In February 2005,
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
released the first season of
Miami Vice
on three double-sided DVDs. One of the package's discs contained bonus material, including an extensive interview and archival footage of Hammer creating music for the show back in 1985.
To coincide with the release of the DVD, Reality Records released a newly recorded version of "Crockett's Theme" to AC (
Adult Contemporary
) radio in America.
In 2006 Hammer was asked to collaborate with the singer/rapper TQ for a brand new version of his song "Crockett's Theme". The result of their work was
The Jan Hammer Project Featuring TQ (
Terrance Quaites
): Crockett's Theme
. A CD single of this new version climbed up the charts in Europe, hitting No. 1 on the
iTunes
Europe download list.
In a 2012 interview, Hammer indicated that he is working on a compilation of unreleased works.
[4]
In a 2014 interview with the
Rolling Stone
he claimed he always felt halfway between experimental music and prog-rock. He also claimed to have recorded the theme song for
Miami Vice
before the series was made, and that it had been the piece he presented to
Michael Mann
when announcing his interest of being involved with the series. He stated that he used a
Fairlight CMI
to compose the music to the series while sampling drums and percussion into it with real acoustic sound. He added that he would have been interested in scoring the
2006 film version of
Miami Vice
, but that he was never approached by Michael Mann about it.
[5]
He recorded a version of the
Squidbillies
theme in 2014.
[6]
On 20 July 2018 he released his first album of new material in over 10 years:
Seasons - Part 1
.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Hammer became a US citizen in 1978.
[7]
He has a son, Paul, who fronts the band
Savoir Adore
.
[8]
Discography
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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Studio albums
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Live albums
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Boxsets
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Concert tours
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Related subjects
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Characters
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Accessories
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Music
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Seasons
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Video games
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See also
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International
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National
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Artists
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Other
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