Jan Hammer
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Jan Hammer (born 17 April 1948, in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a composer and musician.
His career spans the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and has won him several Grammy awards. He is probably most well known for Miami Vice Theme and Crockett's Theme, from the popular 1980s US television program, Miami Vice. He is known for playing guitar parts in his compositions on synthesizers, and has written about how he achieves this effect.
History
Childhood
Jan was born in Prague, capital of then Czechoslovakia (today capital of Czech Republic). His mother was a well known Czech singer Vlasta Průchová, and his father was a doctor. After a childhood full of music, he entered the highly prestigious Prague Academy of Musical Arts.
Moving to the United States
When the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, his studies at the Academy were cut short, and he moved to the United States after receiving a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Upon completion of these studies, Jan moved to Lower Manhattan and joined the Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1971. In the two years this group was together, they sold over two million records before disbanding in 1973.
Red Gate Studio
Jan spent a considerable sum of his savings on constructing his own recording complex (the Red Gate Studio) on his New York property, which helped his solo career. He went on to record with many of the era's most respected musicians.
Miami Vice
In 1984, the producers of the upcoming television series Miami Vice asked him to take on the task of scoring the music for each episode of the program. Jan agreed, and in 1985 his theme song for the program reached number one on the Billboard Singles Chart. It remains one of two instrumental television theme songs to reach number one, along with "Theme From SWAT" by Rhythm Heritage. It remained at the top of the US charts for twelve weeks, became quadruple platinum and earned Jan two Grammy Awards.
National Westminster Bank
In the late 1980s and early 1990s Crockett's Theme was used extensively in television advertising in the United Kingdom for NatWest.
Discography
With the Mahavishnu Orchestra:- The Inner Mounting Flame (1971)
- Birds Of Fire (1972)
- Between Nothingness And Eternity (1973)
- The Lost Trident Sessions (recorded 1973, released 1999)
- The First Seven Days (1975)
- Miami Vice (1985)
- Escape from Television (1987)
- Snapshots
- Beyond the Mind's Eye (1992)
- Drive
- Snapshots 1.2
- Miami Vice : The Complete Collection (2002)
- The Best of Miami Vice
- Oh Yeah (1976)
- Melodies (1977)
- Jeff Beck Live With The Jan Hammer Group (1977)
External links
- [Official Jan Hammer website]
- [Jan Hammer Interview] - Mahavishnu, Miami Vice and More
- [Unofficial Jan Hammer website *New*]
- [Unofficial Jan Hammer website (est. 1995)]
- [Diggin' Deeper - The Jan Hammer Compendium]
- [Jan's son, Paul Hammer]
- [Interview - Discusses his guitar sound experimentations]
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