5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane

Name  Jorma Kaukonen

Best known for  Founding member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. And, husband and world traveler and general philosopher. 

Current city  Athens, Ohio… Home of Ohio University.

Really want to be in  My dream city is Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. I would be drinking espresso and enjoying the local seafood caught that day followed by a fabulous dessert, then a walk by the water on the pebble beach.

Excited about  My new album, 75 ½ Wabash Avenue out on Records Store Day/Black Friday. This is a recording from 1965 that never saw the light of day until July of this year.

My current music collection has a lot of  Americana. Currently I cannot get enough of Willie Watson, Gillian Welsh.

And a little bit of  Always the blues. Dave Specter out of Chicago who is a friend…just love his playing, T-Bone Walker w/ Dizzy Gillespie Jazz at The Philharmonic – Live in the UK 1966.

Preferred format  Streaming is so convenient but there’s nothing like vinyl.

Five Albums I Can’t Live Without:

1

Harlem Street Singer, Blind Gary Davis

In 1960 I was a student of Ian Buchanan who transliterated Rev. Davis’ guitar work to me in a way I could understand. When the album came out, listening to it in my dorm room at Antioch College changed my life! So much of my early career rested on tunes I learned off this album!

2

I Can Tell, John P. Hammond

“I Can Tell” and “I Wish You Would” featuring Robbie Robertson on guitar and Bill Wyman on bass. This was blues! This was rhythm and blues! This was more than authentic, if there is such a thing. I first heard these songs on a 45 rpm single on the Red Bird label. As soon as Atlantic picked John up and released these songs and more on the I Can Tellalbum, you know I went right out and bought it!

3

The Dirt and the Stars, Mary Chapin Carpenter

Mary Chapin Carpenter had been my Poet Laureate for many years. I could have picked almost any of her many albums but The Dirt and the Stars is the most recent one I have, hence here it is.

4

King of the Delta Blues Singers, Robert Johnson

I was at Antioch College in 1961 when John Hammond brought these Robert Johnson cuts to Campus on a reel-to-reel tape before the album was released. I’m not a Robert Johnson stylist, but these tunes were certainly a paradigm shift from the blues I was familiar with at that time!

5

The Harder They Come, Jimmy Cliff

Soundtrack album from the movie of the same name. In 1972 Jerry Garcia stopped by my house on Yerba Buena Ave. in San Francisco with this album in hand. “You’ve gotta check this reggae stuff out! You’ve never heard anything like it!” Jerry was right on both accounts. The movie, “The Harder They Come” was playing at a local art theater at the time so I listened to the album and immediately went and saw the movie. This is fundamental reggae at its best