Jorma Kaukonen

Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. (/ˈjɔːrmə ˈkaʊkənɛn/; YOR-mə KOW-kə-nen; born December 23, 1940) is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist. Kaukonen performed with Jefferson Airplane, and still performs regularly on tour with Hot Tuna, which started as a side project with bassist Jack Casady, and as of early 2024 has continued for 55 years. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 54 on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of Jefferson Airplane.

Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. was born on December 23, 1940, in Washington, D.C., to Beatrice Love (née Levine) and Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Sr. He had Finnish paternal grandparents and Russian Jewish ancestry on his mother's side. He is the older brother of fellow musician Peter Kaukonen. During his childhood, the Kaukonen family lived in Pakistan, the Philippines, and other locales as they followed his father's State Department career from assignment to assignment before returning to the place of his birth. In Pakistan, he attended Karachi Grammar School. As a teenager in Washington, D.C., he and friend Jack Casady formed a band called the Triumphs, with Kaukonen on rhythm guitar and Casady on lead.

Kaukonen attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where his friend Ian Buchanan taught him fingerstyle guitar playing. Buchanan also introduced Kaukonen to the music of Reverend Gary Davis, whose songs have remained important parts of Kaukonen's repertoire throughout his career.

In 1962, Kaukonen moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and enrolled at the University of Santa Clara. During this time, he gave guitar lessons at Benner Music Company in San Jose. He played as a solo act in coffee houses and accompanied Janis Joplin on acoustic guitar on the 1964 recording known as "The Typewriter Tapes" because of the obtrusive sound of Kaukonen's first wife, Margareta, typing in the background.

In 1965, his friend Bob Kinzie introduced Kaukonen to a former Santa Clara student, Paul Kantner, who invited Kaukonen to join a band he was forming with Marty Balin. As a self-described country blues purist, Kaukonen was initially reluctant, but found his imagination excited by the arsenal of effects available to electric guitar, later remarking that he was "sucked in" by technology. With the group still looking for a name, Kaukonen suggested the name Jefferson Airplane, inspired by an eccentric friend who had given his dog the name "Blind Lemon Jefferson Airplane". When their original bass player was fired, Kaukonen recommended his friend Casady (who still lived in Washington at the time) as a replacement.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.