Peter Kaukonen (born Benson Lee Kaukonen on September 23, 1945) is an American guitarist/

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where ...

/songwriter based in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. He is the younger brother of

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 bassist J ...

from

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 ...

and

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 ...

. Peter Kaukonen has played, toured, and recorded with Jefferson Airplane,

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 ...

, Hot Tuna,

Johnny Winter John Dawson Winter III (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014) was an American singer and guitarist. Winter was known for his high-energy blues rock albums and live performances in the late 1960s and 1970s. He also produced three Grammy Award-win ...

Link Wray Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr. (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s. ''Rolling Stone'' placed Wray at No. 45 of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. In 2013 ...

, Terry Allen,

Ruthann Friedman Ruthann Friedman (born July 6, 1944) is an American folk singer-songwriter and guitarist best known for writing the hit song "Windy" for the American sunshine pop band the Association. Early years Born in Bronx, New York, Friedman spent her fo ...

(author of "Windy"), as well as his own band, Black Kangaroo. Kaukonen plays both acoustic and electric guitars, acoustic and electric bass,

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...

, lap steel guitar and piano. His influences are

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Delta blues Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...

, fingerpicking guitar, New Age-style acoustic music, rock and roll, jazz and classical music. Kaukonen's songwriting spans 40 years—from early power trio songs written for Black Kangaroo and covered by Jefferson Airplane to instrumental compositions. He attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Discography

with Black Kangaroo *''Black Kangaroo'' –

Grunt Records Grunt Records was a vanity label founded in 1971 by Jefferson Airplane and distributed by RCA Records. Initially created to sign local Bay Area acts, the label later was used only for Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna releases. The label ended use ...

FTR-1006 (1972) *''Black Kangaroo'' – Wounded Bird 106 (2007) *"Prisoner" / "Dynamo Snackbar" – Grunt Records single 65-0507 (1972) *"Up or Down" / "That's a Good Question" – Grunt Records single 65-0510 (1972) Solo *''Going Home'' – Veldt 1001 (2004) *''Beyond Help'' – Veldt 1002 (2004) *''The Archives 1976 - 2006'' – Veldt 1003 (2006) *''Traveller'' – Veldt 1004 (2007) Guest appearances *''

Blows Against the Empire ''Blows Against the Empire'' is a concept album by Paul Kantner, released under the name Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship. It is the first album to use the "Starship" moniker, a name which Kantner and Grace Slick would later use for the band J ...

'' – RCA Records LSP-4448 (by

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 ...

and

) (1970) *''

Sunfighter ''Sunfighter'' is a 1971 album created by Paul Kantner and Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane. The album was released shortly after the Airplane album '' Bark'' was released, and is the second record released on the Airplane's own Grunt vanity l ...

'' – Grunt Records FTR-1001 (by Paul Kantner and

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 ...

) (1971) *''

Be What You Want To ''Be What You Want To'' is the 1973 album by American guitarist Link Wray. The album was recorded in 1972 with many guest musicians, including Jerry Garcia, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Commander Cody, and David Bromberg. The Encycl ...

'' – Polydor PD-5047 (by

) (1973) *''

Manhole A manhole (utility hole, maintenance hole, or sewer hole) is an opening to a confined space such as a shaft, utility vault, or large vessel. Manholes are often used as an access point for an underground public utility, allowing inspection, m ...

'' – Grunt Records BFL1-0347 (by Grace Slick) (1974) *'' Juarez'' – Fate Records (by Terry Allen) (1975) *''

'' – Epic Records 90036 (by

) (1989)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaukonen, Peter 1945 births Living people American multi-instrumentalists Jewish American musicians Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area Hot Tuna members Jefferson Starship members American people of Finnish descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent 21st-century American Jews Stanford University alumni