''Jefferson Airplane'' is the eighth and final

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

rock band

Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to ach ...

, released on

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical m ...

in 1989. Marty Balin,

Paul Kantner Paul Lorin Kantner (March 17, 1941 – January 28, 2016) was an American rock musician. He is best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, a leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture era. He cont ...

Grace Slick Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and painter. Slick was a key figure in San Francisco's early psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s. With a music career spanning four decades, ...

Jorma Kaukonen Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen, Jr. (; ; born December 23, 1940) is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist. Kaukonen performed with Jefferson Airplane and still performs regularly on tour with Hot Tuna, which started as a side project with bass ...

and

Jack Casady John William "Jack" Casady (born April 13, 1944) is an American bass guitarist, best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Jefferson Airplane became the first successful exponent of the San Francisco Sound. Singles including " S ...

all returned for the album and supporting tour, though Spencer Dryden did not participate. The album and accompanying tour would mark the last time Jefferson Airplane would perform together until their 1996 induction to the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and ...

Overview

Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, and Jack Casady had toured as the KBC Band and released an eponymous album in 1986. Grace Slick had recently left

Starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 1882 in '' Oahspe: A Ne ...

after performing lead vocals on their album '' No Protection'' in 1987, and planned to retire from music. Jorma Kaukonen had been performing solo work and performing live with Jack Casady as

Hot Tuna Hot Tuna is an American blues rock band formed in 1969 by former Jefferson Airplane members Jorma Kaukonen (guitarist/vocals) and Jack Casady (bassist). Although it has always been a fluid aggregation, with musicians coming and going over the y ...

. Kantner left KBC Band in 1987 but joined Hot Tuna on stage for the 1987–1988 tour. Kaukonen invited Slick to play a concert at

the Fillmore The Fillmore is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California. Built in 1912 and originally named the Majestic Hall, it became the Fillmore Auditorium in 1954. It is in Western Addition, on the edge of the Fillmore District and Upper Fil ...

with Hot Tuna in 1988 where she performed harmony vocals on "Third Week in the Chelsea" and lead vocals along with Kantner for " Wooden Ships". In 1989, Slick was convinced to join the band again and the five members finally got together to discuss a reunion tour and album. Joining Jefferson Airplane for the tour along with

Kenny Aronoff Kenny Aronoff (born March 7, 1953) is an American session drummer. Early life Aronoff grew up in Stockbridge, Massachusetts He developed an interest in music at an early age and gravitated to the drums as "drumming was one hundred percent ener ...

on drums were

Tim Gorman Tim Gorman is an American pianist, composer, arranger and record producer. Gorman studied music composition at the University of Portland in Oregon, under Philippe De La Mare, himself a former student of Nadia Boulanger. Biography Gorman graduat ...

– who had played with KBC Band – on keyboards,

Randy Jackson Randall Darius Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American record executive and television presenter, perhaps best known as a judge on ''American Idol'' from 2002 to 2013. Jackson began his career in the 1980s as a session musician playing ba ...

on guitar, and Jorma's brother

Peter Kaukonen Peter Kaukonen (born Benson Lee Kaukonen on September 23, 1945) is an American guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/songwriter based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the younger brother of Jorma Kaukonen from Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Peter Ka ...

also on guitar. Gorman and Jackson did not participate on the album. Aronoff joined the band as drummer for the tour and in the studio. The album was produced by Ron Nevison, who had previously produced the

Jefferson Starship Jefferson Starship is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1974 by a group of musicians including former members of Jefferson Airplane. Between 1974 and 1984, they released eight gold or platinum-selling studio albu ...

albums '' Freedom at Point Zero'', '' Modern Times'' and '' Nuclear Furniture'', as well as Slick's solo album ''

Software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...

''. Kaukonen was displeased with Kantner and Slick's methods in the studio; "Their approach to recording was not the way we used to do it in the old days. It was very much the modular, sequenced LA way of recording. It works for some people but not me. It just wasn't even fun. It was well done but not very passionate." The first music video made to promote the album was for the Kantner-penned "Planes". The video helped the single rise to #24 on the

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

charts for mainstream rock, although the album itself only rose to #85 on the Billboard 200. "Planes" had previously been performed live by KBC Band, and the first studio version was made for this album. Balin's song "Summer of Love" had also been performed live with KBC Band, and was first recorded in the studio for this album. The song did not have a music video but rose to #15 on the adult contemporary charts.

Steve Porcaro Steven Maxwell Porcaro (born September 2, 1957) is an American keyboardist, songwriter, and film composer, known as one of the founding members of the rock band Toto and the last surviving Porcaro brother (after the deaths of Jeff in 1992 and M ...

and

David Paich David Frank Paich (born June 25, 1954) is an American musician, best known as the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist and singer of the rock band Toto since 1977. He wrote or co-wrote much of Toto's original material, including the ba ...

of Toto wrote the final single, "True Love", and also appeared on the song along with bandmate Mike Porcaro. The music video for "True Love" saw less airtime than the video for "Planes". The Kaukonen compositions "Ice Age" and "Too Many Years" had previously been recorded in acoustic versions for the Kaukonen solo album '' Too Hot to Handle'', and received a multi-instrumental treatment here. Kaukonen wrote one more song for the album, the instrumental "Upfront Blues." At least two songs were written but rejected for the album: Balin's "Let's Go" and Slick's "Harbor in Hong Kong". After the album was released, Hot Tuna signed to Epic and released ''

Pair a Dice Found ''Pair a Dice Found'' is an album by the American blues rock band Hot Tuna. Released in 1990, it was their first studio album since ''Hoppkorv'' in 1976. Background In 1989, Jefferson Airplane reunited for a tour and eponymous album on Epic R ...

''—their first studio album in fourteen years.

Track listing

Personnel

;Jefferson Airplane *

– vocals, keyboards *

– vocals, guitars * Marty Balin – vocals *

– bass *

– vocals, guitars ;Additional personnel *

– drums, percussion *

– keyboards *

Michael Landau Michael Christopher Landau (born June 1, 1958) is an American musician, audio engineer, and record producer. He is a session musician and guitarist who has played on many albums since the early 1980s with Boz Scaggs, Minoru Niihara, Joni Mit ...

– guitars *

Nicky Hopkins Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, most notably ...

– keyboards * Flo & Eddie – background vocals * Charles Judge – keyboards * Efrain Toro – percussion *

– guitars * Mike Porcaro – bass *

– keyboard programming ;Production * Ron Nevison – producer, engineer, mixer *Greg Edward – producer, engineer, mixer *Jefferson Airplane – producer *Recorded at The Record Plant, Los Angeles *Jim Mitchell & Rumbo Recorders, Los Angeles – assistant engineer *Gina Immel – assistant engineer *Mixed at Can-Am Recorders, Los Angeles *Toby Wright – assistant mixer *Trudy Green – management *Lynda Lou Bouch – production coordinator *Paul Jamieson – drum technician *Don Barlow – guitar technician *Billy Goodman - equipment mganager/tour *John Danaher - keyboard technician/tour *Pre-Production: The Power Plant *Carl Studna – photography

Charts

Album Singles

Singles

*"Summer of Love" (1989) (single only, no video) *"Planes" (1989) *"True Love" (1989)

Notes

References

{{Authority control 1989 albums Albums produced by Ron Nevison Albums recorded at Record Plant (Los Angeles) Epic Records albums Jefferson Airplane albums