Jan Hammer - Hammer (1979)

(Czech-American 1968-Present)

Prior to scoring Michael Mann’s groundbreaking show - Miami Vice, Jan Hammer was best known as the keyboardist from Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin and Billy Cobham’s monumental Seventies jazz fusion project. Post-Mahavishnu, he led the suitably named prog-rock outfit Hammer, and released collaborative albums with Jeff Beck and Neal Schon. But it was Vice that made him a household name when the show’s theme song topped the Hot 100 in 1985 — the last instrumental recording to do so until 2013’s “Harlem Shuffle.” Hammer’s score compositions (including “Crockett’s Theme,” a No. 1 single across Europe) were also packaged with original songs licensed for the show (Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight,” Glenn Frey’s “You Belong To The City”) on a soundtrack album that hit No. 1 for an impressive 13 weeks in 1985 and 1986.

Hammer Strikes Out

Hammer's pedigree reads like a Who's Who of the modern jazz world. His first band, formed at school in Prague, was a trio that included Weather Report founder Miroslav Vitous. In 1966, Jan and Miroslav gained scholarships to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, and when Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia, Hammer decided to become a US citizen. Early in 1970 Hammer joined the Sarah Vaughan Trio as composer, arranger, conductor and keyboard player, and in 1971 he began to play in New York with John McLaughlin, Jerry Goodman, Billy Cobham and Rick Laird.

Eventually this group evolved into the phenomenon known as The Mahavishnu Orchestra, and it's interesting to note how each of the musicians involved in it experimented in stretching the boundaries of jazz, using electronics. British guitarist McLaughlin was one of the first musicians to use guitar synthesisers extensively, starting with the 360 Systems polyphonic unit (on 'Inner Worlds', for instance); Cobham experimented with electronic percussion and often modulated his drum sound through digital effects on his solo albums; and Goodman (who recently re-emerged on ex-Tangerine Dream man Peter Baumann's new American label) created some of the strangest sounds anyone has ever heard emanating from an electric violin.

Hammer's role in Mahavishnu was demanding — an up-front, often improvising lead synthesist with staggering technique, he developed a shoulder-slung keyboard to allow him to move around on stage. After two studio albums and a live release. Hammer left Mahavishnu to record the impressive Like Children album with Goodman, and then to form a new band, The Jan Hammer Group. At this stage, Hammer built the studio which has been the venue for all his recordings to date: Red Gate Studio, located in a farmhouse in upstate New York.

After a second JHG album, Oh Yeah, Hammer toured and recorded with guitarist Jeff Beck and went on to release Melodies, and then a solo effort — Black Sheep — on which he played keyboards, drums, guitar and an astonishing lead guitar synth patch.

A new band was formed for the self-titled album Hammer, after which the player went back to the guitar world for two collaborative LPs with Journey's Neal Schon. These albums, coupled with some film work, were profitable enough to help Hammer buy a Fairlight for his studio, and in 1982 he began a collaboration with guitarist Al DiMeola which resulted in the albums Electric Rendezvous, Tour de Force and Scenario.

But Hammer's recent history, as far as his climb to TV fame is concerned, begins in 1983 when he scored the films A Night In Heaven and Gimme An F. Although neither film was widely distributed, they did give Hammer an opportunity to express his feeling for the visual aspects of music, a discipline which comes to the fore in each style-soaked episode of Miami Vice, the TV Cop genre's answer to L'Uomo Vogue. 

Producing that quantity of carefully synchronised and stylised music every week for a whole season can't be easy, but Hammer says his Fairlight has been an enormous help.

'I first saw the Fairlight around 1981/82 and the price was prohibitive, but the movie soundtracks raised the money and it soon paid for itself. It allows you to work very quickly and to come up with all sorts of styles, from classical to old-fashioned jazz. Before that time I'd used an Oberheim DS1 digital sequencer and the Sequential Polysequencer, but this was something completely new. Obviously it took some time to learn how to use it — it didn't come easily — but I had a voracious appetite for the thing and there are really only a few major commands.'

Aside from his keyboard adventures, Hammer also has a long history as a drummer, and though he doesn't play acoustic drums much these days, his percussion sounds have some unique qualities. And many of them, it seems, start life in a perfectly standard LinnDrum.

Hammer's so-called 'new musical style', the searing synth guitar melodies, sequenced electro patterns and full-frontal drums package he developed for the Miami Vice series, is in fact no more than the latest extension of what he's been doing, in various bands, for the last 20 years [extract from Electronics & Music Maker - Feb 1986].

Hammer 

The quartet, with which he also performed live, included two multifunctional members such as bassist Colin Hodgkinson , a long-time collaborator of Alexis Korner (and who is currently part of a renewed Ten Years After !) And singer and guitarist Glenn Burtnick, that among countless projects you can place him as a member of Styx (in the '90s) and Dennis DeYoung's band .

Rockers like Goodbye or Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison's) are fine but too verbose and robotic I would say, although they will probably sound more polenta live.

The best without a doubt comes in the end.  Rainbow Day brings an irresistible tempo means while closing Side 2 is Sister Louisiana , a melody composed by Burtnick that sounds like an outtake from London Town of Wings.

This album was tragically forgotten in Jan Hammer's discography on Spotify, and at the time of its release the cover was censored in some countries due to protests from feminist organizations that considered it offensive. A precedent of repudiation of gender violence, when the term was not yet widely used nor was it on the covers of newspapers.

Not All Gig Reviews Are Great

Jan Hammer stood on the stage of the Bottom Line on Monday evening and pretended to play guitar. There are a lot of guitarists whose instrumental prowess is only pretense, but what made his performance unusual is that he is a noted jazz‐rock keyboard‐player. No more. Slung over his shoulder was an unwieldy keyboard contraption plugged into a battery of synthesizers that enabled him to mimic quite uncannily the sounds of an electric guitar. Mr. Hammer even aped the cliched gestures of a rock guitarist, writhing and grimacing to beat the band —which in this case bore his surname, Hammer.

After playing with John McLaughlin and Jeff Beck, perhaps Mr. Hammer feels that he has been a power behind the throne's of great guitarists for too long, and now he wants to grab a bit of that center‐stage glory for himself. But his performance at the Bottom Line was as pointless, obscene and inadvertently comic as the act of an inept but utterly straightfaced female impersonator. So what if he can imitate on a keyboard Jimi Hendrix's guitar riffs? Jim Bailey does a great Judy Garland.

Not only has Mr. Hammer traduced the tool of his trade, but he has also dropped the jazz from the jazz‐rock at which he used to excel. True to its name, his band hammered away witlessly. The rigid thwack of his new drummer, Gregg Carter, deprived Mr. Hammer's material of interesting rhythmic activity.

The stentorian tenor vocals of the “rhythm keyboardist” Bob Christianson seemed inspired by second‐rate rock groups such as Kansas. Only his bass‐player, Colin Hodgkinson, with his burly, rumbling tone, acquitted himself honorably, and even his sound seemed cheap when compared to its ringing innovativeness in the context of the pioneering British band, Back Door. That's the same door through which Mr. Hammer should beat an embarrassed retreat.

(Review from The New York Times, March 22, 1979, Section C, Page 16. By Ken Emerson)

Alternative Cover

I was in two minds whether I would include this gig review, mainly because I believe Mr Emerson was still stuck in the early seventies when music was all about music and stage presence was just an after thought. It is obvious to me that Hammer was tired of sitting back in the shadows of the Marshall stacks and playing 2nd fiddle to the lead singer and guitarist who dominated front stage. The 80's were only just around the corner and the stage act was now as important as the music.  Outrageous hairstyles, stage costumes and gimmicks were becoming the norm, so it's no wonder Hammer decided to step it up a notch and show off his talents on his astonishing lead guitar synth patch.  Why should the lead guitarist and vocalists have all the fun. 

It is obvious that Hammer was trying to reinvent himself and keep up with the times, something that Mr Emerson was incapable of realising.  It's not rocket science Ken, even Barbie could have seen it!

 

This post consists of FLACs ripped from my vinyl (which I purchased at a time when record covers were important to me, this one certainly caught my attention) and includes full album artwork. Of course label scans and reference articles are included, so I guess I've nailed it again. Now trust me -

you are really gonna enjoy this album - great songs, great lyrics and an excellent cover of Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman".

Track Listing

01. Goodbye (Colin Hodgkinson, Jan Hammer) - 3:37

02. I Got You (Music: Colin Hodgkinson, Lyrics: Jan Hammer) - 5:50

03. Oh, Pretty Woman (Roy Orbinson, Bill Dees) - 3:41

04. One Day (Glen Burtnick, Ivona Reich) - 4:38

05. Vaporize Me (Music: Colin Hodgkinson, Lyrics: Jan Hammer) - 3:42

06. Nowhere To Go - 5:46

07. Forever Tonight (Colin Hodgkinson, Jan Hammer) - 4:46

08. Highway Made Of Glass (Ivona Reich, Jan Hammer) - 3:14

09. Rainbow Day - 5:38

10. Sister Louisiana (Colin Hodgkinson) - 3:14

Hammer is :

Colin Hodgkinson : Bass, 12 String Guitar & Vocals

Gregg Carter : Drums

Glen Burtnick : Lead & Background vocals, Acoustic & Rhythm Guitars, Tambourine

Jan Hammer : Keyboards, Lead & Rhythm Synthesizers, Vocals

Hammer Link (181Mb)