2003 Jan Hammer Interview


airtommy

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I was digging through papers and came across a Jan Hammer interview I had printed out years ago.  It hasn't been posted on our forum and I could not find any trace of it on the Internet.  I searched for the interviewer and was fortunate to find him on a guitar forum.  He kindly re-posted the interview with updated links:

Hammer Time: Talking ‘Miami Vice’ with Legendary Keyboardist Jan Hammer

Ed Driscoll

https://pjmedia.com/ed-driscoll/2024/04/02/hammer-time-talking-miami-vice-with-the-legendary-composer-jan-hammer-n4927822
 

He confirms that he left MV partly because the Dick Wolf regime de-emphasized him.

Quote

I wanted to leave after the third season. Again, there was another producer who was running the show, and I was getting sort of burned out. I was approaching episode #66 at this point, and you get drained. But also, I was not happy with the mixes, the music was sometimes buried, where it never was before-it was really featured, in the second season, especially. In the third season it got a little spotty. So I just said "enough".   Plus I had offers to do other things. I wanted to sort of branch out and do more features, and whatever.

 

Edited by airtommy
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Jan: Believe it or not, there were people out there who would tape the episodes, and just records the snippets of the score that they could hear [without dialogue and/or sound effects], and then cut together their own mixes

 

I know he's talking about more advanced users, but that was me as teenager!:) I had a cassette recorder with a builtin mic that I held up to the tv speaker. The quality was awful and the tapes inevitably got chewed up over time.

I never would've imagined back then how many great Jan tracks and fantastic covers of his works I would have access to now.:cool:

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On 4/7/2024 at 3:36 PM, airtommy said:

I was digging through papers and came across a Jan Hammer interview I had printed out years ago.  It hasn't been posted on our forum and I could not find any trace of it on the Internet.  I searched for the interviewer and was fortunate to find him on a guitar forum.  He kindly re-posted the interview with updated links:

Hammer Time: Talking ‘Miami Vice’ with Legendary Keyboardist Jan Hammer

Ed Driscoll

https://pjmedia.com/ed-driscoll/2024/04/02/hammer-time-talking-miami-vice-with-the-legendary-composer-jan-hammer-n4927822
 

He confirms that he left MV partly because the Dick Wolf regime de-emphasized him.

 

Great — thank you for posting. 
I think he would have gone anyway - Dick Wolf or not.

Love Jan!

Edited by Matt5
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  • 4 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Some clarity on Season 4:

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in the fourth year, I collaborated with John Peterson in the middle of the season, where he took over a little while. He took over for a while, but most of it was using my already established thematic material. But I did the beginning of the season, and then I did some of the ending [ratings] sweeps episodes. 

Real guitar vs samples:

Quote

Jan:  some of the rhythm guitar, I actually played on a guitar. 

Ed: I think I read the theme song has some real guitar on it. 

Jan: Oh yeah. There were more things, but that's the one that you can hear it: the chugging, distorted rhythm guitar. That's a live Strat. 

Ed: Now the lead guitar melody on the theme song-that was played on keyboard I assume. 

Jan: That was my sort of a trademark sound.

 

 

 

Edited by airtommy
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2 hours ago, airtommy said:

Real guitar vs samples:

Quote

Jan:  some of the rhythm guitar, I actually played on a guitar. 

Ed: I think I read the theme song has some real guitar on it. 

Jan: Oh yeah. There were more things, but that's the one that you can hear it: the chugging, distorted rhythm guitar. That's a live Strat. 

Ed: Now the lead guitar melody on the theme song-that was played on keyboard I assume. 

Jan: That was my sort of a trademark sound.

 

The four times Jan played guitar on MV (all “chugging distorted rhythm” except for one):

- MV Theme

- teaser of No Exit

-  lead guitar at the beginning of Noogie’s wedding on Made for Each Other (also actual bass guitar on that one!)

- Buddies

 

Am I missing any @Crockettt?

 

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28 minutes ago, Dadrian said:

The four times Jan played guitar on MV (all “chugging distorted rhythm” except for one):

- MV Theme

- teaser of No Exit

-  lead guitar at the beginning of Noogie’s wedding on Made for Each Other (also actual bass guitar on that one!)

- Buddies

Wow, incredible that you know this!

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9 minutes ago, airtommy said:

Wow, incredible that you know this!

If you know what DJs stunt double looks like vs the man himself, it’s easy to spot Bobby Foxworth in various scenes. I know what a real guitar sounds like vs. a synthesizer. :) 

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18 minutes ago, Dadrian said:

If you know what DJs stunt double looks like vs the man himself, it’s easy to spot Bobby Foxworth in various scenes. I know what a real guitar sounds like vs. a synthesizer. :) 

I can do neither.   :)

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6 hours ago, Dadrian said:

The four times Jan played guitar on MV (all “chugging distorted rhythm” except for one):

- MV Theme

- teaser of No Exit

-  lead guitar at the beginning of Noogie’s wedding on Made for Each Other (also actual bass guitar on that one!)

- Buddies

 

Am I missing any @Crockettt?

 

Jan also played some rhythm guitar on the second part of Airport Swap :)

 

 

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2 hours ago, Crockettt said:

Jan also played some rhythm guitar on the second part of Airport Swap :)

 

 

Just the best.  10 \ 10

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