Jan Hammer

Prague, Berklee and Mahavishnu

Jan Hammer was born in Prague on April 17, 1948. His mother, Vlasta Pruchova, was a well-known Czech singer, and his father, a doctor, played vibraphone and bass. He began piano at four and formal instruction at six, had a high-school jazz trio, and recorded across Eastern Europe at fourteen. He attended the Prague Academy of Musical Arts until the Warsaw Pact invasion of August 20, 1968, recorded a live trio album at The Domicile in Munich on August 30, 1968, released as Malma Maliny on MPS, then won a scholarship to Berklee in Boston and became a US citizen in 1978.

He toured as pianist with Sarah Vaughan in 1970 and 1971, and in 1971 joined the Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham, Jerry Goodman and Rick Laird; Wikipedia says he joined the original line-up, jazz.com that he co-founded it. The Inner Mounting Flame was recorded in August 1971, and the band played about 530 shows before the farewell concert on December 30, 1973. Birds of Fire reached number 15 on the Billboard 200. Hammer is described as an early pioneer of playing the Minimoog live, and he said it gave him his original voice. After Mahavishnu he played in Billy Cobham's band (Spectrum, 1973), on John Abercrombie's Timeless (ECM, 1974) and with Jerry Goodman on Like Children (1974).

Red Gate, Beck and Miami Vice

The First Seven Days, his solo debut, was recorded in 1975 at Red Gate Studio, his farmhouse in Kent, New York. In 1976 he played on Jeff Beck's Wired, produced by George Martin and certified platinum, and formed the Jan Hammer Group, with Oh, Yeah? (1976) and Melodies (1977); Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live (1977) came from a 117-show tour. Elegant Gypsy (Al Di Meola, 1977), Black Sheep (1978) and There and Back (Beck, 1980) followed, and Untold Passion (1981) and Here to Stay (1982 or 1983) with Neal Schon on Columbia. He played nine US benefit concerts with Beck in December 1983.

From fall 1984 he scored Miami Vice for 90 episodes, leaving full-time work in 1988; Michael Mann gave him creative freedom, saying run with it, and the sounds were Memorymoog samples chopped and sequenced on a Fairlight CMI. The Miami Vice soundtrack was number one on Billboard on November 2, 1985 and sold over four million copies in the US; at the February 1986 Grammys the theme won best pop instrumental performance and best instrumental composition. "Escape", with Beck, won the 1985 Grammy for best rock instrumental performance. Later work included I Come in Peace (1990), Drive (1994), music for TV Nova from 1994, and Seasons, Part 1 (July 20, 2018). He toured with Tony Williams in 1991, including the Montreal Jazz Festival on July 4.

Keyboard Magazine named him best lead synthesist for seven years and put him in its Hall of Fame. Electronics and Music Maker ran a February 1986 piece on his Red Gate studio, whose gear included a Fairlight CMI Series IIX, a Memorymoog, a DX7, a Jupiter 8 and a MiniMoog he kept.