Jazz Articles about Jorma Kaukonen

Live At Sweetwater / Live At Sweetwater Two / Live In Japan

by Doug Collette
July 15, 2023

Hot Tuna's Live at Sweetwater/Live at Sweetwater 2/Live in Japan (Mercury Studios, 2004) reaffirms the fluidity of personnel that's marked the veteran ensemble throughout its over fifty-year career. Comprised of titles originally issued on the Relix Records label in the mid-to-late Nineties, then re-released in modified form in 2004, this Mercury Studios compendium may represent the definitive versions of those titles (though the lack of notes providing historical perspective, as appeared on previous editions, leaves that a moot point).

Jorma Kaukonen: Live At The Bottom Line

by Doug Collette
June 3, 2023

Live at the Bottom Line represents a significant turning point in the history of guitarist, composer and vocalist Jorma Kaukonen. Occurring roughly a year after the release of his solo album, Blue Country Heart (Columbia Records, 2002), the concerts marked the advent of a new career phase for the co-founder of Hot Tuna, including regular touring with the latter (in both electric and acoustic formats) plus roadwork as a solo act. Featuring sixteen tracks on two CDs (as ...

Jorma Kaukonen: Been So Long - My Life & Music

by Doug Collette
August 25, 2018

Been So Long: My Life & Music Jorma Kaukonen 368 Pages ISBN: # 978-1250125484 St. Martin's Press 2018 Anyone who reads Jorma Kaukonen's memoir Been So Long is bound to be surprised. But what the venerable musician recounts in My Life and Music may startle fans and followers most of all, not just with the account of all his trials, tribulations and epiphanies, but by the tone of equanimity with which he shares ...

Jorma Kaukonen: River of Time

by Doug Collette
April 25, 2009

Jorma Kaukonen's revival of his partnership with Jack Casady of Hot Tuna over the last decade has also inspired him as a solo musician. The guitarist/vocalist/composer has produced the Grammy-nominated Blue Country Heart (Columbia, 2002) as well as the splendid Stars in my Crown (Red House, 2007). River of Time is an even more heartfelt and sympathetic collaboration.

The melancholy melody and heartrending lyrics of Hot Tuna's vintage “Been So Long" sets the tone for the CD in its crystal-clear ...

Jorma Kaukonen: Stars In My Crown

by Doug Collette
August 6, 2007

Listening to this studio recording of Jorma Kaukonen's , it's well to remember that he was a devout student of country blues when, back in the 1960s, he enlisted in the ranks of psychedelic radical icon group, Jefferson Airplane (whose name was parodied from blues artist, “Blind Lemon Jefferson).

Stars In My Crown extends the guitarist/vocalist/songwriter's study and rediscovery of the genre. The CD reflects a genuine love for the music, its history and consequently it's as much ...