JORMA KAUKONEN

Jorma Kaukonen is best known as the guitarist with San Francisco based psychedelic band Jefferson Airplane, but he is also an accomplished Piedmont Blues player. Jorma learned fingerpicking guitar in the style of Rev. Gary Davis and accompanied a young Janis Joplin on the campus of Santa Clara University in 1964. A founder member of Airplane, Jorma played fingerstyle electric guitar with a host of effects. Hot Tuna, a spin-off band with bassist Jack Cassady, was formed to explore the Piedmont acoustic style, but when Airplane folded, the addition of drummer Bob Steeler led to Tuna becoming a power trio that indulged in extensive jamming. Tuna has been an ongoing project whenever Jack and Jorma get together, but in the periods when they aren’t, Jorma has collaborated with David Crosby, Robert Hunter, Warren Zevon, a re-union with Airplane, the jamming band Widespread Panic and much more. He currently runs The Fur Peace Ranch, a guitar and music retreat with a studio, and he records and gigs as a solo artist.

Early video of Hot Tuna;