An Evening with Jorma Kaukonen

In a career that has already spanned a half-century, Jorma Kaukonen has been one of the most highly respected interpreters of American roots music, blues, and Americana, and at the forefront of popular rock-and-roll. A member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and a GRAMMY nominee, he is a founding member of two legendary bands, Jefferson Airplane and the still-touring Hot Tuna. Jorma Kaukonen’s repertoire goes far beyond his involvement creating psychedelic rock; he is a music legend and one of the finest singer-songwriters in music.

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. Soon he met Jack Casady. Though they could not have known it, they were beginning a musical partnership that has continued for over 50 years. Jorma graduated from high school and headed off to Antioch College in Ohio, where he met Ian Buchanan, who introduced him to the elaborate fingerstyle fretwork of the Rev. Gary Davis. A work-study program in New York introduced the increasingly skilled guitarist to that city’s burgeoning folk-blues-bluegrass scene and many of its players. After a break from college and travel overseas, Jorma moved to California. It was at this time, that he met Paul Kantner and was asked to join a new band. Although Jorma’s true passion was roots music, he decided to join. That band was the Jefferson Airplane. Jorma invited his old musical partner Jack Casady to come out to San Francisco and play electric bass for Jefferson Airplane, and together they created much of Jefferson Airplane’s signature sound. A pioneer of counterculture-era psychedelic rock, the group was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve international mainstream success. Their 1967 record Surrealistic Pillow is regarded as one of the key recordings of the “Summer of Love”. Two hits from that album, “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit”, are listed in Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”. Jorma and Jack would jam whenever they could and would sometimes perform sets within sets at Airplane concerts. The two would often play clubs following Airplane performances. Making a name for themselves as a duo, they struck a record deal, and Hot Tuna was born. Over the next three and a half decades Hot Tuna would perform thousands of concerts and release more than two-dozen records. In addition to his work with Hot Tuna, Jorma has recorded more than a dozen solo albums on major labels beginning with 1974’s Quah and continuing with his recent acoustic releases on Red House Records—2007’s Stars in My Crown and River of Time, featuring Levon Helm. Jorma released his latest solo album, Ain’t In No Hurry, in February of 2015 on Red House Records.

But performance and recording are only part of the story. As the leading practitioner and teacher of fingerstyle guitar, Jorma and his wife Vanessa Lillian operate one of the world’s most unique centers for the study of guitar and other instruments – Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch Guitar Camp in 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 Jorma and other instructors who are leaders in their musical fields. Jorma is constantly looking to take his musical horizons further still, always moving forward and he is quick to say that teaching is among the most rewarding aspects of his career. “You just can’t go backward. The arrow of time only goes in one direction.”