Jan Hammer

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Jan Hammer 1977

Jan Hammer (* 17th April 1948 in Prague than in January Hamr ) is a Czech-American Jazz -Pianist and - keyboardist . As a film musician , he achieved great fame , especially with his compositions for the television series Miami Vice .

Life

Jan Hammer is the son of the Czech singer Vlasta Průchová and the cardiologist and jazz musician Jan Hammer senior (born September 5, 1919, † May 2, 1989). Andrea Hammer (* 1953) is his sister. He started playing the piano at the age of four. As a schoolboy he founded a jazz trio at the age of fourteen and played in many countries in Eastern Europe. He studied at the Prague Conservatory until he had to end his studies prematurely after the Prague Spring . Shortly thereafter, he moved to the United States , where he received a scholarship from Berklee College of Music in Boston . He is the father of a son.

plant

Mahavishnu Orchestra

Hammer was a member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra from 1971 to 1973 and played the acclaimed fusion records The Inner Mounting Flame , Birds of together with John McLaughlin (guitar), Jerry Goodman (violin), Rick Laird (bass) and Billy Cobham (drums) Fire and Between Nothingness and Eternity . Until their farewell concert on December 30, 1973, they performed 530 concerts. The Jan Hammer Group , which he then founded , received great reviews from both jazz and rock. The June 1974 album Timeless by guitarist John Abercrombie is one of the rare opportunities to hear Jan Hammer as a pianist.

hammer

In 1978 he recorded the album Black Sheep , on which he played every instrument himself. The Hammer group emerged from this work. This year he also wrote three songs for the new album There and Back of Jeff Beck , which appeared in the 1980th The song he wrote, Star Cycle , became the theme tune for the successful British television series The Tube . As a Minimoog player he took part in the 1979 album Mingus by Joni Mitchell .

The early 1980s

In the late 1970s to the early 1980s, Jan Hammer recorded the albums Elegant Gypsy , Casino , Splendido Hotel and Electric Rendezvous with Al Di Meola . At the same time, Jan Hammer toured with the Journey guitarist Neal Schon under the name Schon & Hammer . Under this one released the albums Untold Passion (1981) and Here to Stay (1982). In 1982 and 1983 the Jan Hammer Band toured the USA and Europe with Carsten Bohn , Jack Bruce and Colin Hodgkinson . In December 1983 Hammer played together with Jeff Beck at new benefit concerts in the US for Ronnie Lane's ARMS (Action Research into Multiple Sclerosis), in which Jimmy Page , Eric Clapton , Joe Cocker and many others also took part. In 1984 he worked on the first solo album City Slicker by James Young ( Styx ) as a producer and co-author. He was also involved in Mick Jagger's album She's the Boss .

Miami Vice

Jan Hammer had already composed three soundtracks for movies and music for numerous documentaries and commercials, but he only became really known as a composer through Miami Vice .

In 1984 he was commissioned to write the cover story and background music for a new American crime series. On November 2, 1985, the Miami Vice soundtrack stormed to the top of the Billboard charts. With more than four million copies sold, the album went platinum four times in the United States.

At the Grammy Awards in February 1986, the Miami Vice Theme received two awards: one for “Best Instrumental Performance in Pop” and a second for “Best Instrumental Composition”. Jan Hammer also received two Emmy nominations in 1985 and 1986. At the end of 1986, Jan Hammer was voted “Best Studio Synthesist” by the readers of Keyboard Magazine .

In 1988 Jan Hammer composed the theme music for the European television series Eurocops .

From the 1990s

In the 1990s, Jan Hammer turned his attention again to film and television music (including With I Come in Peace , Curiosity Kills , a television commercial for Amnesty International , Knight Rider 2000 , The Taking of Beverly Hills and Sunset Heat ). In 1995 he created the soundtrack for the pilot film and the thirteen episodes of the Vanishing Son series . In 1996, the score for A Modern Affair and In the Kingdom of the Blind the Man with One Eye Is King followed . From 1996 to 2000 he also wrote all of the music for TV Nova, the first commercial TV station in the Czech Republic. In 1997 he composed the soundtrack for the computer game Outlaw Racers (MegaMedia), in 2003 Jan Hammer reworked his 1975 debut album on behalf of Sony Records and released a remastered version of it. In 2006 he was won over by rapper Terrance Quaites for a new recording of the song Crockett's Theme . In this version, the song hit the charts in Germany for the second time.

In 2018, after a long break from recording, he signed with the Winnender label 7Jazz, where he released his first album Seasons Pt. 1 published. Miami-Nights was chosen as the first single to be released .

Discography

Albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1975 Like Children - - - - US150 (3 weeks)
US
1977 Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live - - - - US23
gold
gold

(15 weeks)US
with Jeff Beck
1981 Untold Passion - - - - US115 (8 weeks)
US
with Neal Schon as Schon & Hammer
1983 Here to stay - - - - US122 (12 weeks)
US
with Neal Schon as Schon & Hammer
1987 Escape from Television DE14th
gold
gold

(23 weeks)DE 		- - UK34
gold
gold

(12 weeks)UK 		-
1989 Snapshots DE44 (4 weeks)
DE 		- CH24 (2 weeks)
CH 		- -

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More albums

  • 1968: Maliny Maliny (Jan Hammer Trio with George Mraz and Cees See ; as an MPS record also as Make Love )
  • 1974: Mourner's Rhapsody (with Czesław-Niemen- Band, Rick Laird , John Abercrombie and others)
  • 1975: Timeless (with John Abercrombie and Jack DeJohnette )
  • 1975: Jazz 2000 ( Elvin Jones with Jan Hammer, Frank Tusa , Terry Clarke , David Liebman and Gene Perla )
  • 1975: Is “On the Mountain” (Elvin Jones with Jan Hammer and Gene Perla )
  • 1975: The First Seven Days
  • 1976: Make Love
  • 1976: Oh, yeah? (Jan Hammer Group)
  • 1977: Melodies (Jan Hammer Group)
  • 1978: Live (Jan Hammer Group)
  • 1979: hammer (hammer)
  • 1979: Black Sheep (Hammer)
  • 1980: Hip Address (with David Earle Johnson )
  • 1980: I Giganti del Jazz Vol. 15 (with Jeremy Steig , Don Alias and Eddie Gomez )
  • 1981: Finger Dancing ( Yoshiaki Masuo with Jan Hammer)
  • 1983: The Midweek Blues (with David Earle Johnson and John Abercrombie)
  • 1985: City Slicker ( James Young with Jan Hammer)
  • 1986: Fania All Stars Featuring Jan Hammer (Fania All Stars feat. Jan Hammer)
  • 1993: Beyond the Mind's Eye
  • 1994: Drive
  • 2000: Snapshots 1.2
  • 2006: Police Quest 3 (The Kindred Soundtrack) (28 mp3 files)
  • 2007: Turtles - Live at Domicile 1968 (Jan Hammer Trio and Olaf Kübler ; release: August 22nd)
  • 2010: Live in Berlin (Stone Alliance Special Guest Jan Hammer)
  • 2018: Seasons Pt.1

Compilations

  • 1986: The Early Years
  • 1998: No More Lies - The Neal Schon & Jan Hammer Collection (Schon & Hammer)
  • 2002: Miami Vice: The Complete Collection (2 CDs)
  • 2004: The Best of Miami Vice
  • 2005: Black Sheep / Hammer (2 CDs)
  • 2006: The Best of Miami Vice
  • 2013: Šíleně Smutná (with Helena Vondráčková and Václav Neckář )

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1985 Miami Vice Theme
Escape from Television 		DE5 (23 weeks)
DE 		AT4 (10 weeks)
AT 		CH8 (9 weeks)
CH 		UK5
silver
silver

(11 weeks)UK 		US1 (22 weeks)
US
First published: August 1985
1987 Crockett's Theme
Escape from Television 		DE4 (23 weeks)
DE 		AT29 (4 weeks)
AT 		CH9 (11 weeks)
CH 		UK2
silver
silver

(12 weeks)UK 		-
First published: April 1987
Tubbs and Valerie
Escape from Television 		DE34 (10 weeks)
DE 		- - UK84 (3 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: September 1987
1988 Forever Tonight
Escape from Television 		DE62 (4 weeks)
DE 		- - - -
First published: January 1988
The Runner
Snapshots 		- - - UK93 (4 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: December 1988
1991 Crockett's Theme (Remix)
 - - - UK47 (6 weeks)
UK 		-
First release: May 1991
Jan Hammer remixed by Il Nitro
2006 Crockett's Theme
 DE52 (9 weeks)
DE 		- - - -
First publication: August 2006
Jan Hammer Project feat. TQ

More singles

  • 1976: Oh, yeah?
  • 1977: Darkness / Earth in Search of a Sun (Instrumental) / Earth (Still Our Only Home) (Track 3 with Jerry Goodman )
  • 1977: Don't You Know (Jan Hammer Group)
  • 1979: Oh, Pretty Woman (release: October)
  • 1983: No More Lies (with Neal Schon ; release: March)
  • 1985: Finale (release: June)
  • 1985: Airport Swap / Golden Triangle (release: September)
  • 1987: Shadow in the Dark (Miami Vice, Halloween 1986) (released June)
  • 1989: Too Much to Lose
  • 1989: Eurocops
  • 1990: Chancer (Theme from the Central Television Series)
  • 1993: Seeds of Life
  • 1993: Midnight
  • 2010: Fairlight EP ( Junkie XL feat. Jan Hammer)
  • 2018: Miami Nights

literature

  • Brigitte Tast, Hans-Jürgen Tast: be bop - Wilhelmshöhe rocks. Disco and concerts in hell. Verlag Gebrüder Gerstenberg GmbH & Co. KG, Hildesheim, ISBN 978-3-8067-8589-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.nndb.com/people/897/000024825/
  2. ↑ a b Chart sources: Singles Albums UK US / The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
  3. ↑ a b gold / platinum databases: DE UK US
personal data
SURNAME Hammer, Jan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hamr, Jan (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech-American jazz pianist and keyboard player
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague