Sam’s Jams: Jan Hammer “Don’t You Know”
From the 1977 album, Melodies
Son of the famous Czech Jazz vocalist, Vlasta Průchová, Jan Hammer is an important Czech-American musician, composer and record producer. After moving to the United States in 1968, Hammer received a full scholarship to Berkley College of Music in Boston. After graduation, he toured with many distinguished jazz musicians before joining the original lineup of Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970s. With this group Hammer was an early pioneer of synthesizers, playing the Minimoog Moog keyboard in a live jazz setting. Hammer also composed scores for television and film including “Miami Vice Theme” and “Crockett’s Theme”, “Cocaine Cowboys”, and episodes for Tales From the Crypt and Squidbillies. Hammer recorded and toured with many notable jazz musicians like Sara Vaughan, Elvin Jones, John Abercombie, Jack DeJohnette, Jeff Beck, as well as recording on Mick Jaggers first solo album.
Sam’s Jams is the weekly song selection of WDET’s creative producer Sam Beaubien, a longtime Detroit musician who also helms the soul-funk band Will Sessions.
From 70 years ago to contemporary releases today, Sam’s Jams is the musical equivalent of digging for hours in dusty record store bins to find forgotten-but-should-be-remembered deep cuts pulled from the genres of funk, jazz and soul genres.
