Paul Kantner

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Paul Kantner
Paul Kantner, circa 1973
Paul Kantner, circa 1973
Background information
Birth name Paul Lorin Kantner
Born 17 March 1941 (1941-03-17) (age 66)
Origin San Francisco, United States
Genre(s) Psychedelic rock
Instrument(s) Guitar
Years active 1965–present
Label(s) RCA Records, Grunt Records, Arista Records
Associated acts Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, KBC Band

Paul Lorin Kantner (born 17 March 1941 in San Francisco, California) is an American rock musician, most noted for co-founding the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Paul Kantner captained the band through various successor incarnations of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship. In all incarnations of the band, his primary instrument was the rhythm guitar, though he did sing lead or backup vocals on most songs.

During the summer of 1965 singer Marty Balin recruited folk musician Kantner as part of the original Jefferson Airplane.

During the transitional period of the early 1970s, as the band started to disintegrate, Kantner recorded Blows Against The Empire, a concept album featuring an ad-hoc group of musicians whom he dubbed Jefferson Starship, marking the first-ever use of that name. This edition of Jefferson Starship (such as it was) included members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (David Crosby and Graham Nash) and members of the Grateful Dead (Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart), as well as some of the remaining members of Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick, Joey Covington, and Jack Casady). In Blows Against the Empire, Kantner (and Slick) sang about a group of people escaping earth in a hijacked starship. The album was nominated in 1971 for a prestigious science fiction prize, the Hugo Award, a rare honor for a musical recording. It was while that album was made that Kantner sealed his love affair with Grace Slick; their daughter China Kantner (who made a name for herself as an MTV veejay in the 1980s) was born shortly thereafter.

Kantner and Slick (with a similar group of musicians, but without a "Jefferson Starship" artist credit) released two follow-up albums: Sunfighter, an environmentalism-tinged album released in 1971 to celebrate China's birth, and 1973's Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun, titled after the nicknames David Crosby had given to the couple. The artist credit on Baron von Tollboth gave ex-Quicksilver Messenger Service bassist-keyboard player-vocalist David Freiberg equal billing with Kantner and Slick. (Freiberg, who had also appeared on Blows Against the Empire, had joined Jefferson Airplane in time to appear on Thirty Seconds over Winterland.)

Kantner is also credited with discovering teen-age guitarist Craig Chaquico during this time, who first appeared on Sunfighter and would play with Kantner, Slick, and their bands and then with Starship through 1991. He later embarked on a successful solo career as a smooth jazz artist.

By 1973, with Kaukonen and Casady now devoting their full attention to Hot Tuna, the musicians on Baron von Tollbooth formed the core of a new Airplane lineup that was formally reborn as Jefferson Starship in 1974. Kantner, Slick, and Freiberg were charter members. The line-up also included late-Airplane holdovers drummer John Barbata, and fiddler Papa John Creach (who also played with Hot Tuna), along with Pete Sears (who, like Freiberg, played bass and keyboards), and twenty-year-old guitarist Craig Chaquico. Although Balin was originally not among the re-christened Jefferson Starship, he joined the band while their first album, Dragonfly, was still in the works.

In 1984, Kantner (the last founding member of Jefferson Airplane remaining) left the group, but not before taking legal action against his former bandmates over the Jefferson name (the rest of the band wanted to continue as Jefferson Starship). Kantner won his suit, and the group name was reduced to simply Starship, marking the third incarnation of the band.

In 1985, following his departure from Jefferson Starship, Paul Kantner rejoined with Balin and Jack Casady to form the KBC Band, releasing their only album, KBC Band (which included Kantner's hit, "America"), in 1987 on Arista Records.

With Kantner reunited with Balin and Casady, the KBC Band opened the door to a full-blown Jefferson Airplane reunion. In 1989, during a solo San Francisco gig, Paul Kantner found himself joined by former bandmate (and lover) Grace Slick and two other ex-Airplane members for a cameo appearance. This led to a formal reunion of the original Jefferson Airplane (featuring nearly all the main members, including founder Marty Balin, but without Spencer Dryden, who had been kicked out of the band years earlier). A self-titled album was released by Columbia Records. The accompanying tour was a success, but their revival was short-lived, and thus Jefferson Airplane was officially disbanded for good. In 1991 Kantner and Balin formed a new version of Jefferson Starship , Kantner continues to tour with the band as of 2007 and former Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship bassist David Frieberg rejoined the group in 2005.

[edit] Albums discography

[edit] Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, Starship, and Jefferson Starship-TNG

[edit] Jefferson Airplane

[edit] Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship

[edit] Jefferson Starship

[edit] Jefferson Starship - The Next Generation

[edit] Compilation albums credited to "Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship"

  • Hits (1998)
  • VH1 Behind the Music (2000)
  • Love Songs (2000)

[edit] Selected solo, duo and trio efforts

[edit] Paul Kantner/Grace Slick

[edit] Paul Kantner

[edit] The KBC Band

Includes Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, and Jack Casady.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Paul Kantner
Studio albums Blows Against the Empire · Sunfighter · Baron von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun · Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra
Related Articles Jefferson Airplane · Jefferson Starship · KBC Band
v • d • e
Jefferson Airplane
Marty Balin · Grace Slick · Paul Kantner · Jorma Kaukonen · Jack Casady · Spencer Dryden
Jerry Peloquin · Bob Harvey · Signe Anderson · Skip Spence · Joey Covington · John Barbata · David Freiberg · Papa John Creach
Studio albums Jefferson Airplane Takes Off · Surrealistic Pillow · After Bathing at Baxter's · Crown of Creation · Volunteers · Bark · Long John Silver · Jefferson Airplane
Live albums Bless Its Pointed Little Head · Thirty Seconds Over Winterland
Historical live albums Live at the Fillmore East · Sweeping Up the Spotlight
Compilations The Worst of Jefferson Airplane · Early Flight · Flight Log · 2400 Fulton Street · Jefferson Airplane Loves You
Filmography Monterey Pop · Gimme Shelter · One A. M. · Woodstock (director's cut only)
Related articles Jefferson Starship · Hot Tuna · KBC Band · Jefferson Starship - The Next Generation · Starship · Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra · Grunt Records
v • d • e
Jefferson Starship
Paul Kantner · Grace Slick · Marty Balin · Craig Chaquico · Pete Sears · David Freiberg · John Barbata · Papa John Creach
Peter Kaukonen · Aynsley Dunbar · Mickey Thomas · Donny Baldwin · Mark Morgan · Brett Bloomfield
Studio albums Dragon Fly · Red Octopus · Spitfire · Earth · Freedom at Point Zero · Modern Times · Winds of Change · Nuclear Furniture
Studio albums (Starship) Knee Deep in the Hoopla · No Protection · Love Among the Cannibals
Compilations Gold · Greatest Hits (Ten Years & Change 1979-1991)
Filmography Star Wars Holiday Special · The Definitive Concert
Related Articles Jefferson Airplane · Grunt Records
v • d • e
Jefferson Starship - The Next Generation
Paul Kantner · David Freiberg · Slick Aguilar · Chris Smith · Donny Baldwin · Cathy Richardson
Prairie Prince · Diana Mangano · Jack Casady · Marty Balin · T Lavitz · Gary Cambra · Darby Gould · Papa John Creach
Studio album Windows of Heaven
Live albums Deep Space / Virgin Sky · Greatest Hits: Live at the Fillmore · Across the Sea of Suns
Related articles Jefferson Airplane · Jefferson Starship · KBC Band · Starship
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kantner"
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