KBC Band (also sometimes referred to as The Kantner Balin Casady Band) was formed in 1985 by former

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 ac ...

(later

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 ...

) members

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 ...

(

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and vocals),

Marty Balin Martyn Jerel Buchwald (January 30, 1942 – September 27, 2018), known as Marty Balin (), was an American singer, songwriter, and musician best known as the founder/leader and one of the lead singers and songwriters of Jefferson Airplane and ...

(vocals and guitar) 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 ...

( bass). Other members included Keith Crossan (

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

, guitar and vocals),

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 ...

(keyboards and vocals),

Slick Aguilar Mark "Slick" Aguilar (born 1954) is an American guitarist. He has worked with a number of notable musicians but is probably best known as a member of Jefferson Starship. From 1974-1980 he was an in house guitar player for TK studios in N. Miami ...

(guitar and vocals) and Darrell Verdusco (

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s). Their sole LP, ''

KBC Band KBC Band (also sometimes referred to as The Kantner Balin Casady Band) was formed in 1985 by former Jefferson Airplane (later Jefferson Starship) members Paul Kantner (guitar and vocals), Marty Balin (vocals and guitar) and Jack Casady (bass). O ...

'', featured the singles "America" and "It's Not You, It's Not Me." The band performed supporting tours from 1985 to 1987 before Kantner left for

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

to investigate the

Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto C� ...

situation. The band did not perform after his return. Kantner said that Balin was becoming "difficult" near the end of KBC's existence. However, Kantner and Casady continued to perform onstage together during

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 ...

concerts in late 1987 and early 1988, and the three reunited with

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, s ...

and

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 ...

for a Jefferson Airplane reunion album and a reunion tour in 1989, along with Tim Gorman on keyboards for the tour. The album included three songs that had been performed by KBC Band: "Planes", "Solidarity" and "Summer of Love". They had also performed "Let's Go", which was considered for but rejected from that album. In 1992, Kantner, Casady, Aguilar, and Gorman reformed Jefferson Starship. Balin would also eventually rejoin them in 1993. All members of KBC Band except for Verdusco and Crossan participated in the recording of ''

Deep Space/Virgin Sky Deep Space/Virgin Sky is a 1995 album by Jefferson Starship recorded live at the House of Blues in West Hollywood on the Sunset Strip. The concert was performed as a benefit memorial for violinist Papa John Creach, who had died in 1994, with proc ...

'' and ''

Windows of Heaven ''Windows of Heaven'' is Jefferson Starship's first studio album since reforming in 1992 and ninth album overall. It was first released in Germany, but the band told fans to wait for a new American remixed version. The single "Let Me Fly" was re ...

''. Verdusco has been a member of

Starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 188 ...

featuring Mickey Thomas since 1995.

Personnel

- guitar, vocals *

- vocals, guitar (died 2018) *

- bass *Keith Crossan - saxophone, guitar, vocals *

- keyboards, vocals *

- guitar, vocals (died 2016) *Darrell Verdusco - drums

References

Citations

Rock music groups from California Musical groups established in 1985 Musical groups disestablished in 1987 Musical groups from San Francisco 1985 establishments in California 1987 disestablishments in California Jefferson Airplane {{US-band-stub