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Jorma Kaukonen
In a career that has spanned nearly a half century, Jorma Kaukonen has been the leading practitioner and teacher of finger-style guitar, one of the most highly respected interpreters of American roots music, blues, and Americana, and at the forefront of popular rock-and-roll.
He was a founding member of two legendary bands, Jefferson Airplane, and the still-touring Hot Tuna. A Grammy nominee for his highly acclaimed CD, Blue Country Heart, he is also one of the most in-demand instructors in the galaxy of stars who teach at the guitar camp that he and his wife operate in Southeastern Ohio. With the CD, Stars In My Crown, Kaukonen proves that he is continuing to explore and grow, and that he is at home in numerous musical genres.
The son of a State Department official, Jorma Kaukonen, Jr. was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area. He was a devotee of rock-and-roll in the Buddy Holly era, but soon developed a love for the blues and bluegrass played in the clubs and concerts in the nation’s capitol.
He wanted to make that kind of music himself, and he wanted to take up guitar. Kaukonen’s father, skeptical because the young Jorma taken up other instruments only to lose interest, said that if young Jorma would learn some songs on guitar, he could have one. He soon got a shiny new Gibson.
After traveling and playing overseas and in New York, he settled in California where he formed Jefferson Airplane. His friend, bassist Jack Casady, also joined the band. The Kaukonen-Casady duo created much of Jefferson Airplane’s signature sound, and Kaukonen’s lead and finger-style guitar playing characterizes some of the band’s most memorable tracks. But the folk and blues muse was strong. Kaukonen and Casady would jam whenever they could, and would sometimes perform sets within sets at Jefferson Airplane concerts. The two would often play clubs following Jefferson Airplane performances. A record deal was made, and Hot Tuna was born.
Over the next three and a half decades, Hot Tuna performed thousands of concerts and released more than two dozen records. The musicians who performed with them were many and widely varied, as were their styles: from acoustic to long and loud electric jams, to acoustic once again, but never straying far from their musical roots.
Kaukonen has also had a succession of more than a dozen solo albums, beginning with the 1974 Quah. His most recent release is the 2007, Stars In My Crown. Along with the other members of The Jefferson Airplane, Kaukonen is a 1996 inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Kaukonen later met and married Vanessa Lillian in 1988. Together they founded Fur Peace Ranch Guitar Camp in the Appalachian foothills of Southeastern Ohio. Since it opened in 1998, thousands of musicians, whose skills range from basic to highly accomplished, gather for weekends of master instruction offered by Kaukonen and other leaders in their musical fields.
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