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Jorma Kaukonen
 Those with an interest in 'sixties West Coast music will certainly know the legendary San Francisco based Jefferson Airplane. 1967 saw the release of what remains perhaps the pinnacle of all psychedelic albums in 'Surrealistic Pillow'. With its ingenious blend of folk, blues, rock and snaky guitar lines, not to mention two absolute classics in Somebody To Love and the equally anthemic White Rabbit, the album and its musicians led the vanguard in creating a uniquely American sound. The 'Airplane were also the only major band to play Monterey Festival, basically headline Woodstock and support the Rolling Stones in the bloodbath that was the Altamont Festival later in the seminal year of 1969.
A founding member of the band from its start in 1966, guitarist Jorma Kaukonen remained with the band for a five year period - seeing the 'Airplane turn out its most creatively expansive work (the psychedelic experimentation and politics of 'After Bathing At Baxters' and 'Crown Of Creation' before that passionately political rock of 1970's 'Volunteers' introduced a lineup which also saw the inclusion of English piano maestro - the late and much missed Nicky Hopkins). It was around the time of 'Volunteers' that Kaukonen also teamed up with long time friend and the band's incomparable bassist, Jack Casady to form a reasonably fluid lineup for the band Hot Tuna, that exists 'til this day.
Kaukonen will be an important guest at Adelaide's first International Guitar Festival in a few weeks, and when we were chatting amiably -he from his school/ ranch in the 'States - he remarked, in the spirit of a shared reflection, "You know it's amazing that Jack and I will have been playing together for fifty years this year. Jack is a trained reading musician but I'm not, so it's amazing for me to think here we are all these years later and still doing it. That sort of thing happens in string quartets perhaps, but who'd have thought it of old rock guitarists?"
Kaukonen explained that as you might expect from a guitarist such as he, although the 'Airplane had such a progressive reputation, that blues underpins everything he does.
"And that was the great thing about the Airplane," he affirms. "There were so many different influences at work there and yet this can also cause the downfall and yet Hot Tuna has lasted because our love of acoustic blues is so great. We still play and teach. Here on my ranch we had a weekend school on Mississippi John Hurt and as well as myself we had an historian, and someone who knew him well and played with him. It's so great to be able to pass the message on."
Touching on the subject of acoustic blues, I couldn't resist asking about the truth behind what has become an urban myth surrounding his buying an electric guitar so he could be heard over Janis Joplin.
"You know Janis was amazing," he begins. "Just amazing and those records really only give a two dimensional picture of Janis. There'll never be any one like her. The story," he says, breaking into a laugh, "is basically true. Her voice was that powerful that you couldn't be heard, so I went and bought me a 'thirties Gibson L5 with a pick up in it. I paid $69 for it and I still have it."
Kaukonen picks up on the proliferation of specialist arts festivals and feels that this indeed a good thing as is the rebirth of interest in American Roots music for which he singlehandedly holds George Clooney's film 'Brother Where Art Thou?' responsible. And it certainly aids his guitar workshops held on his Fur Peace Ranch which he describes as "a 119 acre music and guitar camp in the hills of south east Ohio, complete with a 32 track studio," where many come to work, teach and play.
It's his love for the instrument, the music, and he wish to pass on the skills that Kaukonen will be bringing to Adelaide for the Guitar Festival.
Brett Allen-Bayes
Jorma Kaukonen joins the Adelaide International Guitar Festival, from Fri 23 Nov at the Adelaide Festival Centre and Elder Park, where he performs on the 'Kiss The Sky' and 'Taking Flight' events, and many other events, including workshops
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