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Hammer was the hottest composer alive in the mid 80s, with Miami Vice Theme and Crockett's Theme topping the hit lists. In 1988 he decided he no longer wanted to score MV, and out he went. He released the successful album Snapshots in 89, and less successful stuff Beyond The Mind's Eye and Drive in the early/mid 90s. Other than that he has been totally out of the limelight for 20 years now, the download release of Cocaine Cowboys from 2006 excepted.
Hammer is 67 now, does anyone know about his whereabouts? Is he back in eastern Europe or does he still live in the US?
Why didn't he do big in the 90s and beyond, when a composer like Hans Zimmer did so well, a guy clearly using a couple of tricks from the Hammer songbook?
Filmography:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006122/
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Posted: |
Aug 7, 2015 - 3:02 PM
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By: |
drop_forge
(Member)
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I think Jan's just taking it easy and enjoying a life free of pressure, deadlines and all that. (He didn't squander his moola, so he doesn't have to tour the casino circuit like Journey.)
Jan's played with some guys off and on since, like Elvin Jones, Gary Husband, the Mahavishnu Project, and, of course, he and Jeff Beck were nominated for a Best Rock Instrumental Grammy for "Even Odds," from Jeff's 1999 album Who Else?
In 2010, he collaborated on something called the Fairlight EP with Junkie XL. I haven't heard it.
Jan's output in the last 15 years has definitely been scaled back, but when you consider the dizzying volume of output to his credit in the '70s and '80s, I'd say his downtime is well-deserved.
There's also this from Wikipedia: "In an interview, Jan Hammer indicated that he is working on a compilation of unreleased works – which by early 2015 has yet to appear."
Here are Jan's credits from 1995-2000 (after he released Drive in 1994, which I did not like), from www.janhammer.com. This is a lot of music.
"Jan returned to his scoring and soundtrack work with renewed passion and creativity as 1995 arrived. He began with the one hour Universal drama Vanishing Son (starring Russell Wong of Joy Luck Club), then went on to compose the theme and score for 13 episodes of the series. He composed and performed the original music for two feature films, both released in 1996: A Modern Affair (with Stanley Tucci, Lisa Eichorn, Caroline Aaron and Tammy Grimes) and In the Kingdom Of the Blind the Man With One Eye Is King (starring Will Petersen and Paul Winfield). Jan wrapped up the year scoring Beastmaster III - The Eye of Braxus, the long-awaited sequel to the sword-and-sorcery favorite (starring Mark Singer and Lesley-Anne Down).
In 1996, Jan’s output continued to thrive. His scoring assignments included the NBC Movie of the Week, The Babysitter’s Seduction (with Phylicia Rashad, Stephen Collins and newcomer Keri ‘Felicity’ Russell); The Secret Agent Club, a feature film starring Hulk Hogan, Richard Moll, Barry Bostwick and Lesley-Anne Down; and The Corporate Ladder (Orion Pictures), starring Anthony Dennison, Ben Cross, and Jennifer O’Neill.
Also in 1996 (and through 2000) Jan was commissioned to compose all the original music for TV Nova, the first commercial television network in Eastern Europe, based in the Czech Republic. Jan composed everything -- including themes for 23 original shows produced by the network, no less than 50 separate station ID’s, the music for all of the network’s special broadcasts, plus the music for all the news, sports and weather programs.
In 1997, Jan also composed the hard-driving rock soundtrack for the new CD-ROM game, Outlaw Racers (MegaMedia). His next project was the theme and original music score for the pilot and the series of Prince Street (NBC-TV) starring Vincent Spano and Mariska Hargitay."
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Sure, I guess he doesn't need the money, but I would think he still had an urge to compose. After all, he was disappointed not to be contacted by Michael Mann for the Miami Vice feature.
Yes, he played with lots of jazz and rock guys in the last 20 years, but I would rather see him do some solo stuff, for album or film.
The stuff with Junkie sounds cool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEQtPv9NbXA
That album of unreleased stuff would be great, nothing has happened with that since 2012 though.
I agree that Drive wasn't a very good album, it didn't have the MV magic, but it had its moments.
I have seen several of those 95-00 films, like A Modern Affair (the theme appeared on the new version of Snapshots), Kingdom Of The Blind, Beastmaster III (both had some good stuff) and The Babysitter's Seduction.
A Modern Affair:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDYeQvWI7II
Nova:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7Wh2yAjTq8
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Posted: |
Aug 7, 2015 - 5:20 PM
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By: |
drop_forge
(Member)
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1) Comparing Jan Hammer to Journey? The only time a comparison was even remotely possible (notwithstanding Neal Schon's collaborations) was prior to Steve Perry's enlistment, when the group was doing some amazing fusion-y stuff. Days long gone, sad to say.
I wasn't comparing their musical output. (I thought the joke was pretty obvious.) Yes, Journey still makes money, but it's all from touring — relentlessly — because their albums don't sell like Departure, Escape and Frontiers these days. That's how Steve Augeri burned his voice out (and if Arnel isn't careful, they'll burn him out, too). The single best singer they've ever had, Jeff Scott Soto, was given his walking papers after one tour because he's not a Steve Perry soundalike. Journey has to play the exact same tired radio hits on every stop, and if Neal can persuade Jon, they throw in some other choice nuggets.
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Posted: |
Aug 7, 2015 - 5:34 PM
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By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
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Yeah, I never understood why some of these guys have decided to basically retire, even if they're still young enough to keep it going. OK, I understand they don't need the money, and they can rest on their laurels etc., but one would think the creative juices would continue to flow -- if nothing else, then at least in smaller circumstances.
I'm sure somebody like Jan Hammer* has found ways to channel his creativity in venues that may be invisible to us. Some people get satisfaction from scoring film and television, some hit a wall and need something else, either bigger or smaller. Or possibly he got tired of fighting for gigs, or being typecast, or whatever. I honestly have no idea, but it's not uncommon for some creative people to say "Okay, did that, what else is there?"
* I'd originally just written "Hammer," but it seemed like I was referring to somebody who would never retire, being 2 legit 2 do so.
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Posted: |
Aug 7, 2015 - 5:54 PM
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By: |
Octoberman
(Member)
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I wasn't comparing their musical output. (I thought the joke was pretty obvious.) Yes, Journey still makes money, but it's all from touring — relentlessly — because their albums don't sell like Departure, Escape and Frontiers these days. That's how Steve Augeri burned his voice out (and if Arnel isn't careful, they'll burn him out, too). The single best singer they've ever had, Jeff Scott Soto, was given his walking papers after one tour because he's not a Steve Perry soundalike. Journey has to play the exact same tired radio hits on every stop, and if Neal can persuade Jon, they throw in some other choice nuggets.
My brother & sister-in-law saw them back in 2012 and I asked him to take note of anything they played from the 1st 3 albums. He said it was all Perry-era stuff.
My God, what a wasted opportunity to sneak in "Kohoutek" or "Spaceman". 
That's it for thread-derailing from me. 
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I sure would love to have a CD of the ORIGINAL music he made for "Knightrider 2000". It was completely different from the 80s original, as was the film itself, and it had fantastic sections.
Still gives me goosebumps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNMVtEmBbjU
D.S.
Yes, this track is on Drive.
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Posted: |
Aug 8, 2015 - 4:26 PM
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By: |
Trekfan
(Member)
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OK, I understand they don't need the money, and they can rest on their laurels etc., but one would think the creative juices would continue to flow -- if nothing else, then at least in smaller circumstances.
Weirdness.
Sometimes, too, the financial freedom allows these guys to continue to practice their art just for them, at home, in private - for the sheer enjoyment of it. A painter who's made enough money might paint daily in their basement studio only for them and the works will never be seen or surfaced (or not until much later), and a composer might compose purely for themselves and the joy they derive from it. Isn't it said that Prince records music almost daily and there are thousands of unreleased tracks in the Paisley Park vaults? Not saying this "does it for himself" is the case at all for Jan, I don't know, but he's an enviable creative artist who's made his money and contributed to the film scoring industry at a cool time of synth prominence so maybe he's finally able to do creative projects on his own terms and for himself and not be "for hire".
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bump
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I've posted about this before but I still find it strange that Jan Hammer was against releasing more Miami Vice music. There's so much that could be released, examples being the moody music from the third season episode "Deliver us From Evil" and the recurring bad guy theme from Prodigal Son that was briefly heard in the track "New York" on an MV compilation.
But at least there is something out there. The UK TV show "Chancer" probably passed by a lot of International viewers (It's very good and was Clive Owen's first starring role) butit has a wealth of great Hammer music in it, some of which appeared on Drive and the them came out as a CD single, back in 1990.
How much of it is copyright and how much is Hammer's refusal to market his music is beyond me.
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I've posted about this before but I still find it strange that Jan Hammer was against releasing more Miami Vice music. There's so much that could be released, examples being the moody music from the third season episode "Deliver us From Evil" and the recurring bad guy theme from Prodigal Son that was briefly heard in the track "New York" on an MV compilation.
But at least there is something out there. The UK TV show "Chancer" probably passed by a lot of International viewers (It's very good and was Clive Owen's first starring role) butit has a wealth of great Hammer music in it, some of which appeared on Drive and the them came out as a CD single, back in 1990.
How much of it is copyright and how much is Hammer's refusal to market his music is beyond me.
Most of it is copyright.
Universal owns the music.
They could easily release all the music but don't for some baffling reason.
They did the same to Tim truman who shared many tracks from season 5 on his myspace a few years back and that was never released.
if you remember the 2 cd complete collection of miami vice, Jan had to rerecord the music for the 2nd disc which was the unreleased music.
Harold faltermeyer has the same issue, paramount wont release his work despite their being an audience for it, and I heard he is rerecording a lot of his old work using the same equipment and will then release it himself.
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There's a video Faltermeyer made on youtube where he talks about it and shows the process and how he achieved an effect used in the Axel Foley Theme. I can't seem to find it at the moment; maybe it was elsewhere.
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