Jan Hammer (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjan ˈɦamɛr]) (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He rose to prominence while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as with his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the 1980s television program Miami Vice. He has continued to work as both a musical performer and producer.
Hammer has collaborated with some of the era's most influential jazz and rock musicians such as John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Billy Cobham, Al Di Meola, Mick Jagger, Carlos Santana, Stanley Clarke, Tommy Bolin, Neal Schon, Steve Lukather, John Abercrombie and Elvin Jones. He has composed and produced at least 14 original motion picture soundtracks, the music for 90 episodes of Miami Vice and 20 episodes of the television series Chancer.
His compositions have won him two Grammy Awards.
Jan Hammer was born in Prague, then capital of Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). His mother was Vlasta Průchová, a well-known Czech singer, and his father was a doctor who worked his way through school playing vibraphone and bass guitar. Hammer began playing the piano at the age of four and his formal instruction started two years later. He aspired to follow his father into medicine until a family friend convinced him to develop his musical talents instead. Hammer formed a jazz trio in high school, performing and recording throughout Eastern Europe at the age of fourteen. Upon entrance to the Prague Academy of Musical Arts, he completed many compulsory classes including harmony, counterpoint, music history, and classical composition. His influences included pianists Erroll Garner, Bill Evans, and Paul Bley, organists Jimmy Smith and Larry Young, and drummers Jo Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Elvin Jones, and Tony Williams.
Hammer's studies at the academy were cut short when the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia on 20 August 1968. He recorded a jazz trio live album at "The Domicile" in Munich on 30 August 1968. This was released as Malma Maliny by the German label MPS Records. He stayed in Munich and worked with actress Kai Fischer on her debut album "Kai Fidelity". Hammer decided to move to the United States and resolved to become a citizen after receiving a scholarship at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Upon completion of his studies, Hammer spent a year touring with Sarah Vaughan, recorded with Elvin Jones and Jeremy Steig, then moved to New York City and joined the original lineup of the Mahavishnu Orchestra with guitarist John McLaughlin, violinist Jerry Goodman, bassist Rick Laird, and drummer Billy Cobham in 1971. A successful jazz fusion band, they performed some 530 shows before their farewell concert on 30 December 1973. Hammer was an early pioneer of playing the Minimoog Moog synthesizer in a live setting.
Hammer joined Billy Cobham, Leland Sklar, Tommy Bolin and additional personnel on Billy Cobham's debut solo album, Spectrum released in 1973. After recording albums with Goodman and John Abercrombie (ECM session Timeless with Jack DeJohnette) in 1974, Hammer's solo career began with the release of The First Seven Days (1975). He produced and recorded the album at Red Gate Studio, which he'd built in his upstate New York farmhouse and which has been the location of his recordings ever since.
In 1976, he featured with jazz/rock guitarist Jeff Beck on Beck's RIAA platinum album Wired, produced by George Martin. A tour featuring songs from Wired and Blow By Blow ensued resulting in the Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live album, a chronicle of their 117-show tour which was certified gold.
The Jan Hammer Group was also formed in 1976 and supported The First Seven Days on tour. The group released two LPs Oh, Yeah? and Melodies.
Hammer composed music for the Czech cinematic fairy-tale The Incredibly Sad Princess.
In 1977, Hammer recorded Elegant Gypsy with Al Di Meola. Casino, Splendido Hotel and Electric Rendezvous followed. He then joined Di Meola for a tour chronicled the same year on Tour De Force - Live; and finally appeared throughout Scenario, using a Fairlight CMI digital synthesizer and contributing to more than half of the album's compositions.
During the mid 70s to early 80s he also recorded and played with Joni Mitchell, Billy Cobham, Santana, Tommy Bolin, Harvey Mason and Stanley Clarke.
Hammer also returned to solo work with the release of Black Sheep in 1978. He then formed a new band, known as "Hammer". Also in 1978, he wrote and performed on three songs for Jeff Beck's next album, There and Back, which was released in 1980. One of the album tracks, "Star Cycle," went on to become the theme for the British television series The Tube.
He formed Schon & Hammer, a duo with ex Santana and Journey guitarist Neal Schon, that recorded Untold Passion in 1981 and Here to Stay in 1982.
Hammer took the stage with Jeff Beck in December 1983 for the nine U.S. benefit concerts that raised money for Ronnie Lane's A.R.M.S. (Action Research into Multiple Sclerosis), featuring Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker and a host of others. Into 1984, his various talents were employed on recordings as diverse as James Young's (Styx) first solo album, City Slicker, for which he co-wrote and produced; John Abercrombie's Night; Mick Jagger's first solo album, She's the Boss; and Jeff Beck's Flash which included Hammer's song "Escape", winner of the 1985 Grammy award for "Best Rock Instrumental Performance".
Hammer recorded original scores for three major motion pictures and documentaries, television movies in the U.S., commercials, and station identifications. In the fall of 1984 the producers of Miami Vice enlisted him to commence a weekly schedule of scoring the series.
On 2 November 1985, the Miami Vice Soundtrack hit number one on the Billboard Top Pop album charts. The album achieved quadruple-platinum status with U.S. sales of more than four million copies.
At the Grammy awards in February 1986, "Miami Vice Theme" earned Hammer two awards; one for "Best Pop Instrumental Performance" and one for "Best Instrumental Composition". He also earned Emmy award nominations in 1985 and 1986, for "Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition". At the end of 1986, Hammer won Keyboard Magazine's poll as "Best Studio Synthesist" for a second consecutive year. He had previously won the "Best Lead Synthesist" honor for seven years, at which time he was inducted into the Keyboard Hall of Fame.