''The First Seven Days'' is an album recorded by jazz musician

Jan Hammer Jan Hammer () (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as his film scores fo ...

in 1975. It features extensive use of

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s, including the synthesized "guitar" parts (as on his follow-up album, '' Oh Yeah?''), with the record jacket stating, "For those concerned: there is ''no guitar'' on this album." Other instruments used are grand piano, electric violin and percussion. It is a musical telling of the

Genesis creation story The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity. The narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. In the first, Elohim (the Hebrew generic word ...

. The record jacket continues with "Assuming that each of these "days" lasted anywhere from one day to a hundred million years, the scientific and biblical views do meet in certain points. These points were the inspiration for this album, and, besides, they provided me with an excuse to write seven new pieces of music."

Track listing

All tracks composed by Jan Hammer
(On the LP version, side 2 begins with track 5.) #"Darkness/Earth in Search of a Sun" (4:30) #"Light/Sun" (6:40) #"Oceans and Continents" (6:14) #"Fourth Day — Plants and Trees" (2:44) #"The Animals" (6:09) #"Sixth Day — the People" (7:11) #"The Seventh Day" (6:08)

Personnel

*Jan Hammer - producer, engineer, piano, electric piano,

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

, Oberheim synthesizer and digital

sequencer Sequencer may refer to: Technology * Drum sequencer (controller), an electromechanical system for controlling a sequence of events automatically * DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sam ...

, drums, percussion, Freeman string synthesizer (sic),

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

David Earle Johnson David Earle Johnson (April 10, 1938 - December 22, 1998) was a percussionist, composer and music producer. The son of Earle H. Johnson and Lottie Ruth Troutman Johnson of Florence, SC. He appeared on Billy Cobhams’ Total Eclipse and Voyage ...

- congas & percussion (tracks 5 and 6) *

Steven Kindler Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

- violin (tracks 2, 5, 6, and 7)

Production

*Recorded at

Red Gate Studios Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

Kent, New York Kent is a town in Putnam County, New York, United States. The population was 12,900 at the 2020 census. The name is that of an early settler family. The town is in the north-central part of the Putnam County. Many of the lakes are reservoirs f ...

Andy Topeka Andy may refer to: People *Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds *Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and piano ...

- assistant engineer, custom audio installations *

Milton Glaser Milton Glaser (June 26, 1929June 26, 2020) was an American graphic designer. His most notable designs include the I Love New York logo, a 1966 poster for Bob Dylan, and the logos for DC Comics, Stony Brook University and Brooklyn Brewery. In 1954 ...

- cover illustration *

Paula Scher Paula Scher (born October 6, 1948, Washington, D.C.) is an American graphic designer, painter and art educator in design. She also served as the first female principal at Pentagram, which she joined in 1991.Scher, Paula." (n.d.): Oxford University ...

- art direction

References

''The First Seven Days'', Jan Hammer. Nemperor/Atlantic NE432 (jacket notes)

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:First Seven Days, The Jan Hammer albums 1975 albums Concept albums Albums with cover art by Milton Glaser Atlantic Records albums