Jan Hammer

Born: April 17, 1948, in Prague, Czechoslovakia JAN HAMMER began playing the piano at age 4 and started taking formal lessons when he was 6. By the time he was 14, he was performing and recording with a jazz trio. He was one of the original members of THE MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA (1971), and released his first solo album, THE FIRST SEVEN DAYS, in 1975. He has also done at least 14 movie soundtracks.

His best stuff, in my opinion, is his work with THE MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA and JEFF BECK, but he also did some interesting music with AL DIMEOLA, CARLOS SANTANA, and STANLEY CLARKE, as well as create a whole new feel to background music and soundtracks with his work on the "MIAMI VICE" television show.

"To my ears, those two records...the band Mahavishnu, and the Spectrum record, I think those albums for me are the high point of that type of music."

THE INCREDIBLY RIDICULOUS MTV-ROLLING STONE'S 100 TOP SONGS (1963-2000): 43. MISS YOU, THE ROLLING STONES (1978) (As I've said before, I'm not a Stones fan.) MY TOP 100 SONGS: YOU MADE ME SO VERY HAPPY, BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS

POSTSCRIPT "Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology." JOHN TUDOR

NEXT PAGE = JIMI HENDRIX TO MY MUSIC MAIN PAGE TO MY HOME PAGE E-MAIL