JAN HAMMER MIAMI VICE SERIES
JAN HAMMER MIAMI VICE TV

When I first laid my hands on a Minimoog with its pitch-bend wheel, it was truly a Eureka moment - I thought 'Wow, this is it! This is what I'm looking for.'' Even then, the synthesizer was being used more as an orchestral instrument rather than as a solo instrument, and even where glide was being used, it wasn't being used expressively like playing a violin or even a voice. I got hold of one of the first ring modulators that allowed me to bend the sound of the electric piano in such a way that it hinted at some sort of movement, but at the same time I was hearing synthesizers on albums such as Switched On Bach. So I played electric piano, organ and eventually the synthesizer. I heard things that were more expressive in that sense - and you just couldn't do it with a fixed pitched instrument. I wanted the tonal quality of bending notes and adding vibrato and all that. The piano is a great instrument, like an orchestra at your fingertips, but I was hearing things with more fluidity and more movement. So how did Jan originally make his transition from piano to synthesizer? 'It was an ongoing process where the piano was eventually not enough.

Miami Vice: The Complete Collection was thus released in 2002 as a two-CD set, and Jan's 1975 debut album The First Seven Days has also now been reissued in a digitally remastered form.

JAN HAMMER MIAMI VICE SERIES

In January 2001, reruns of Miami Vice on US television made clear that there was still an audience for an album based on music from the series that had never been made available on record. He's also done music for Tales From The Crypt and Knight Rider 2000 as well as a few major film releases.

JAN HAMMER MIAMI VICE TV

Numerous film and television projects followed, and UK viewers will have heard Jan's work on the TV series Chancer and more recently Red Cap. 'Crockett's Theme', from the series, became a huge hit in its own right. The theme hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and picked up two Grammy awards. Jan's project file reads like a Who's Who of music (Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Billy Cobham, Stanley Clarke, Tommy Bolin, Carlos Santana and Al Di Miola to name but a few), but a whole generation of TV viewers will remember him best as the composer and performer of the high-energy Miami Vice soundtrack with its thundering drums and searing, guitar-like synth lines. Who can forget those wailing synth lines in Miami Vice or the seminal albums recorded with the Mahavishnu Orchestra and British guitar legend Jeff Beck? Since 'going electric' Jan has played with a huge number of influential bands and musicians and has evolved a distinctive and instantly recognisable synthesizer style. Indeed, it could be argued that Jan was almost single-handedly responsible for establishing the electronic synthesizer as a virtuoso performance instrument in its own right rather than as a substitute for traditional instrument sounds. A scholarship at the Berklee School of Music in Boston prompted his move to the US where he became a citizen, but today Jan's name is far more closely associated with the synthesizer than with the piano. Photo: Mark McCartyĪs a member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, a composer for film and TV and a performer in his own right, Jan Hammer helped to define the role of the synth player in rock and jazz.īorn in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Jan Hammer began playing piano at age four and by the age of 14 was performing and recording throughout Eastern Europe with his own jazz trio.

This signature model Lync keyboard was created to meet Jan's requirements for a live performance controller.

Jan hammer miami vice