John Kahn (June 13, 1947 – May 30, 1996) was an American electric and acoustic bassist. From 1970 to 1995, Kahn was
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...
's principal musical collaborator outside of the
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...
.
Biography
John Kahn was born in
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
. Adopted at birth by Hollywood talent agents, he grew up in
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. B ...
and was babysat by
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
, who was represented by his father in the early stages of her career. According to spouse Linda Kahn in a 2017
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
Ask Me Anything prompt, he began to take piano and
music theory
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...
classes at 4 and 5, respectively. Following the death of his father at a young age, he was mentored by
Mischa Elman
Mischa (Mikhail Saulovich) Elman (russian: Михаил Саулович Эльман; January 20, 1891April 5, 1967) was a Russian-born American violinist famed for his passionate style, beautiful tone, and impeccable artistry and musicality.
E ...
, a cousin of his father.
At
Beverly Hills High School
Beverly Hills High School (usually abbreviated as Beverly or as BHHS) is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. The other public high school in Beverly Hills, Moreno High School, is a small alternative school located on B ...
, he earned a reputation as a talented
jazz guitarist
Jazz guitarists are guitarists who play jazz using an approach to chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has fulfilled the roles of accompanist ( rhythm guitar) and soloist in small and large ...
. He also composed a symphonic piece, "Western Impressions," the first orchestral work by a student to be publicly performed by the school's orchestra (under the direction of Robert Holmes). In his junior year, Kahn switched to
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
and formed a jazz duo with a pianist, Peter Isackson, who encouraged him to study with
Monty Budwig
Monte Rex Budwig (December 26, 1929 – March 9, 1992) was a West Coast jazz double bassist, professionally known as Monty Budwig.
Early life
Monte Rex Budwig was born in Pender, Nebraska, on December 26, 1929.His full birthname was Monte Rex Bu ...
, a member of the house rhythm section at notable Hollywood jazz club
Shelly's Manne-hole.
After attending the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
for a semester, he transferred to the
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) is a private music conservatory in San Francisco, California. As of 2021, it had 480 students.
History
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music was founded in 1917 by Ada Clement and Lillian Hodgh ...
in 1965. During this period, he lived in nearby
Sausalito, California
Sausalito (Spanish language, Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, California, Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, California ...
and began to gravitate toward the incipient rock culture of the
Haight-Ashbury
Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...
district. In 1967, he began working as a session musician, specializing in
electric bass
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck
The ...
, with a litany of notable blues, folk, and rock performers, including
Mike Bloomfield
Michael Bernard Bloomfield (July 28, 1943 – February 15, 1981) was an American guitarist and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his ...
,
Nick Gravenites
Nicholas George Gravenites (; born October 2, 1938) is an American blues, rock and folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his work with Electric Flag (as their lead singer), Janis Joplin, Mike Bloomfield and several influential b ...
,
Mississippi Fred McDowell
Fred McDowell (January 12, 1904 – July 3, 1972), known by his stage name Mississippi Fred McDowell, was an American hill country blues singer and guitar player.
Career
McDowell was born in Rossville, Tennessee, United States. His parents were f ...
,
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...
,
Brewer & Shipley
Brewer & Shipley are an American folk rock duo who enjoyed their peak success in the late 1960s through the 1970s, consisting of singer-songwriters Mike Brewer (born on April 14, 1944) and Tom Shipley (born on April 1, 1941). They were known ...
(a longstanding collaboration that encompassed their 1971 Top Ten hit "
One Toke Over the Line"),
Tom Fogerty
Thomas Richard Fogerty (November 9, 1941 – September 6, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist for Creedence Clearwater Revival. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Biography
...
,
Maria Muldaur
Maria Muldaur (born Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D'Amato; September 12, 1942) is an American folk and blues singer who was part of the American folk music revival in the early 1960s. She recorded the 1973 hit song "Midnight at the Oasis" and has ...
(who was in a relationship with Kahn for several years in the 1970s),
Al Kooper
Al Kooper (born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt; February 5, 1944) is a retired American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears, although he did not stay with the group long enough to share its popularity. ...
,
Jackie DeShannon
Jackie DeShannon (born Sharon Lee Myers, August 21, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and radio broadcaster with a string of hit song credits from the 1960s onwards, as both singer and composer. She was one of the first female singer-songwr ...
and
Otis Rush
Otis Rush Jr. (April 29, 1934 – September 29, 2018) was an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. His distinctive guitar style featured a slow-burning sound and long bent notes. With qualities similar to the styles of other 1950s art ...
.
Kahn first played with Garcia in May 1970 as the bassist of a
jazz rock
Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...
group that coalesced around Garcia and organist
Howard Wales
Howard Wales (February 8, 1943 – December 7, 2020) was an American keyboardist who worked in a wide variety of styles. He was a collaborator with Jerry Garcia in the early 1970s.
Wales was a session player for many musical acts, including Ron ...
(who facilitated their introduction) during Monday night jam sessions at
The Matrix
''The Matrix'' is a 1999 science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the first installment in ''The Matrix'' film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantolia ...
, a San Francisco nightclub of the era; this ensemble would go on to record ''
Hooteroll?
''Hooteroll?'' is a jazz-rock fusion album by Howard Wales and Jerry Garcia.
Prior to making ''Hooteroll?'', Wales and Garcia had played together at Monday night jam sessions at The Matrix in San Francisco. Wales had also played organ on sev ...
'' (1971; credited to Garcia and Wales). He also played acoustic bass in
Old & In the Way
Old & In the Way was a bluegrass group formed in 1973. It was composed of Peter Rowan (guitar, vocals), Vassar Clements (fiddle), Jerry Garcia (banjo, vocals), David Grisman (mandolin, vocals), and John Kahn (string bass). When the group was fo ...
, a
bluegrass supergroup Supergroup or super group may refer to:
* Supergroup (music), a music group formed by artists who are already notable or respected in their fields
* Supergroup (physics), a generalization of groups, used in the study of supersymmetry
* Supergroup ...
that toured in 1973 and 1974. Along with Kahn, the band featured Garcia on banjo and vocals, future
progressive bluegrass
Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Like mainstream country music, it lar ...
luminary
David Grisman
David Grisman (born March 23, 1945) is an American mandolinist. His music combines bluegrass, folk, and jazz in a genre he calls "Dawg music". He founded the record label Acoustic Disc, which issues his recordings and those of other acoustic mu ...
on mandolin and vocals, songwriter
Peter Rowan
Peter Rowan (born July 4, 1942) is an American bluegrass musician and composer. Rowan plays guitar and mandolin, yodels and sings.
Biography
Rowan was born in Wayland, Massachusetts to a musical family. From an early age, he had an interes ...
on guitar and vocals, and
Vassar Clements
Vassar Carlton Clements (April 25, 1928 – August 16, 2005) was an American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and ...
on fiddle.
From 1970 to 1975, Kahn played in the
Merl Saunders
Merl Saunders (February 14, 1934 – October 24, 2008) was an American multi-genre musician who played piano and keyboards, favoring the Hammond B-3 console organ.
Biography
Born in San Mateo, California, United States, Saunders attended Polyte ...
and Jerry Garcia Band and was an integral part of later iterations of the Garcia/Saunders collaboration, including
Legion of Mary
The Legion of Mary ( la, Legio Mariae, postnominal abbreviation L.O.M.) is an international association of members of the Catholic Church who serve it on a voluntary basis. It was founded in Dublin, as a Marian movement by the layman and civi ...
(1974–1975) and
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
(1978–1979); the latter group was initially intended to serve as a musical outlet for Kahn during Garcia's tours with the
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...
. Kahn was the only founding member of the
Jerry Garcia Band
The Jerry Garcia Band was a San Francisco Bay Area rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Garcia founded the band in 1975; it remained the most important of his various side projects until his death in 1995. The band regularly tour ...
(1975–1978; 1980-1995) besides Garcia to remain with the group until its dissolution following the guitarist's death in 1995. In addition to serving as the band's nominal manager (these responsibilities were delegated to Grateful Dead employees
Rock Scully
Rock Robert Scully (August 1, 1941 – December 16, 2014) was one of the managers of the rock band the Grateful Dead from 1965 to 1985.
Living in Haight-Ashbury as a graduate student prior to the Summer of Love, Scully first saw the Grateful Dead ...
and Steve Parish), he selected the group's repertoire in consultation with Garcia. During this period, he also played alongside Garcia in the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band (1987–1988) and served as the guitarist's only accompanist in the Garcia & Kahn acoustic duo that toured intermittently from 1982 to 1986.
Offstage, Kahn and Garcia maintained a close friendship. Although several figures in Garcia's life (including brother Tiff Garcia and Grateful Dead keyboardist
Vince Welnick
Vincent Leo Welnick (February 21, 1951 – June 2, 2006) was an American keyboardist-singer-songwriter best known for playing with the band The Tubes during the 1970s and 1980s and with the Grateful Dead in the 1990s. He was inducted into ...
) characterized him as a deleterious influence, daughter Annabelle Garcia was more equanimous: "Yeah, Dad did drugs with John and Linda, but that was just the way it was. They offered my dad a safe haven—a place he could come to get some drugs if he wanted it, and a place to sleep if he needed it, and the company that he needed.
..John and Linda were very sweet people and I know at least they made my dad feel comfortable."
Despite underlying acrimony stemming from his relationship with Garcia, Kahn did occasional work for the Grateful Dead, serving as a recording engineer alongside Betty Cantor-Jackson and Bob Matthews for the band's aborted ''Egypt '78'' live album documenting performances at the
Giza Plateau
The Giza Plateau ( ar, هضبة الجيزة) is a plateau in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, site of the Fourth Dynasty Giza Necropolis, which includes the Great Pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, the Great Sphinx, several cemeteries ...
in September 1978. Selections from these concerts were eventually released as ''
Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978'' (2008). He also contributed horn arrangements and uncredited organ and additional production to ''
Shakedown Street
''Shakedown Street'' is the tenth studio album by rock band the Grateful Dead, released November 15, 1978, on Arista Records. The album came just over a year after previous studio album ''Terrapin Station''. It was the final album for Keith and ...
'' (1978) following the departure of nominal producer
Lowell George
Lowell Thomas George (April 13, 1945 – June 29, 1979) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer, who was the primary guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and founder/leader for the rock band Little Feat.
Earl ...
.
Death
Kahn died of a heart attack in his sleep on May 30, 1996 in
Mill Valley, California
Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...
.
References
External links
*
John Kahn on Allmusic*
John Kahn discography on DeadDisc.com*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahn, John
1947 births
1996 deaths
People from Memphis, Tennessee
American rock bass guitarists
American male bass guitarists
20th-century American musicians
People from Sausalito, California
American session musicians
American rock double-bassists
Male double-bassists
American audio engineers
Grateful Dead
Jewish American musicians
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century double-bassists
20th-century bass guitarists
Old & In the Way members
Jerry Garcia Band members
Legion of Mary (band) members
Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band members
Muleskinner (band) members
Reconstruction (band) members
JGB (band) members
20th-century American male musicians