Steve Khan
Steve Khan (born April 28, 1947) is an American jazz guitarist.
Steve Khan | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Steven Harris Cahn |
Born | Los Angeles, California, U.S. | April 28, 1947
Genres | Jazz, jazz fusion |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instruments | Guitar |
Years active | 1969–present |
Labels | Columbia, Novus, Antilles, Denon, GRP, Mesa/Bluemoon, Verve, Evidence, Tone Center |
Associated acts | Eyewitness, Brecker Brothers, Joe Zawinul, Caribbean Jazz Project |
Website | stevekhan |
Career
According to Steve Khan, his father, lyricist Sammy Cahn, "loved to hear of any and all versions of his songs".[1] Thus Khan grew up in a house with music.[1] He took piano lessons as a child and played drums for the surf rock band the Chantays.[1] The band's guitarist exposed him to the albums Tough Talk by The Crusaders and Movin' Wes by Wes Montgomery.[1] In his late teens he quit the drums and started playing guitar.[1] He was a member of the R&B band Friends of Distinction, recorded with keyboardist Phil Moore, then played on the album Bullitt by Wilton Felder ("one of my heroes").[1] Despite his father's advice to avoid a career in the music business, he graduated from UCLA with a degree in music composition and theory.[1]
In the early 1970s, he performed in an acoustic guitar duo with Larry Coryell and was a member of the Brecker Brothers band.[1] As a session musician, he appeared on albums by Ashford & Simpson, Rupert Holmes, Billy Joel, and Steely Dan.[2] He was signed to Columbia Records through the efforts of Bobby Colomby and Bob James.[1] On his first three albums Tightrope (1977), The Blue Man (1978), and Arrows (1979), he was trying "to single-handledly keep alive the sound of the original Brecker Brothers band."[1] His next album was Evidence (1980), which contained an eighteen-minute medley of songs by Thelonious Monk.[3] In 1977, he toured with the CBS Jazz All-Stars which included Billy Cobham, Tom Scott, and Alphonso Johnson, and then led the ground-breaking band called Eyewitness that featured musicians: Steve Jordan, Anthony Jackson and Manolo Badrena. In 1986, he toured as part of Joe Zawinul's Weather Update. From 1999 through 2002, he co-led the Caribbean Jazz Project alongside Dave Samuels and Dave Valentín. From the 1980s through to the present, he has become the foremost proponent of the guitar in Latin Jazz. With the releases of Parting Shot (2011), Subtext (2014), and Backlog (2016), he has created what the role of the guitar could be in Latin jazz.
His style integrates angular single-note lines with chordal punctuations, reminiscent of jazz pianists like McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea. Arriving in New York at the dawn of the '70s, he came to form a part of the '2nd Wave' of Fusion guitarists that included John Abercrombie and Ralph Towner, and later arrivals John Scofield and Bill Connors. Over the course of a long career, he is now recognized for his innovations in the world of Latin Jazz, while firmly establishing himself to many as journalist Antonio Gandía described him in his cover story interview for "MÚSICO PRO" as 'the voice of Latin Jazz guitar'. AllAboutJazz.com's John Kelman sees him as "one of the great interpreters of the compositions of Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman."
His album covers are notable for featuring the artwork of Jean-Michel Folon, and more recently, Michel Granger.
Awards and honors
- Grammy Award nomination, Local Color (1987)
- Grammy Award nomination, Borrowed Time (2007)
- Named to list of "22 All-Time Greatest Jazz Guitarists", Jazz Life magazine (1998)[4]
Discography
As leader
Release date | Title | Label | Musicians |
---|---|---|---|
1977 | Two for the Road | Arista | Acoustic guitar duo with Larry Coryell |
1977 | Tightrope | Tappan Zee | With the Brecker Brothers, Steve Gadd, Don Grolnick, Will Lee, Jeff Mironov, Ralph MacDonald. |
1978 | The Blue Man | CBS | line-up similar to 1977 |
1979 | Arrows | Columbia | similar to 1977, Rick Marotta, Gadd, Mounsey, Errol "Crusher" Bennett. David Sanborn on two tracks. |
1980 | Evidence | Arista Novus | Solo guitar with compositions by Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk. |
1981 | Eyewitness | Antilles | Eyewitness quartet with Anthony Jackson, Steve Jordan, Manolo Badrena. |
1985 | Blades | Passport | Eyewitness quartet. Recorded live in Tokyo, Japan. |
1984 | Casa Loco | Antilles | Eyewitness quartet. |
1987 | Helping Hand | Polydor | Japan only release. |
1987 | Local Color | Passport | Duo with Rob Mounsey. |
1989 | Public Access | GRP | Eyewitness quartet with Dave Weckl. |
1991 | Let's Call This | Blue Moon | Trio with Ron Carter and Al Foster. |
1992 | Headline | Blue Moon | Trio with Carter and Foster. |
1994 | Crossings | PolyGram | Eyewitness quartet |
1997 | Got My Mental | Evidence | Trio with John Patitucci and Jack DeJohnette plus four percussionists: Café, Bobby Allende, Don Alias, Marc Quiñones. |
2005 | The Green Field | Tone Center | Quartet with Patitucci, DeJohnette, Badrena, plus Roberto Quintero and Ralph Irizarry. |
2007 | Borrowed Time | Tone Center | Sextet with Patitucci, DeJohnette, Badrena, Quintero, Irizarry. |
2008 | The Suitcase: Live in Köln '94 | Tone Center | Eyewitness trio with Dennis Chambers and Anthony Jackson. |
2011 | Parting Shot | Tone Center | Eyewitness quartet plus Allende, Quiñones. |
2014 | Subtext | Tone Center | Quintet with Chambers, Allende, Quiñones, Rubén Rodriguez. |
2017 | Backlog | Tone Center | Featuring Allende, Quiñones, Rodriguez, Mark Walker, Mounsey, Randy Brecker, Mintzer, Mainieri, Tatiana Parra. |
2019 | Patchwork | Tone Center | Featuring Allende, Quiñones, Rodriguez, Chambers, Mounsey, Randy Brecker, Mintzer, Tatiana Parra, Jorge Estrada. |
As sideman
Date | Main recording artist | Album | Label | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1975 | Luther Allison | Night Life | Tamla Motown | |
1977 | Ashford & Simpson | Send It | ||
1977 | Ashford & Simpson | So So Satisfied | ||
1979 | Ashford & Simpson | Stay Free | ||
1976 | Patti Austin | End of a Rainbow | ||
1977 | Patti Austin | Havana Candy | ||
1979 | Gato Barbieri | Euphoria | A&M | Khan on one track |
1975 | Joe Beck | Beck | Kudu | Khan as second guitarist |
1979 | Joe Beck & David Sanborn | Beck & Sanborn | Kudu, CTI | |
1976 | George Benson/Joe Farrell | Benson & Farrell | CTI | Khan on two tracks |
1977 | Walter Bishop Jr. | Soul Village | ||
1976 | Brecker Brothers | Back to Back | ||
1977 | Brecker Brothers | Don't Stop the Music | ||
1969 | Tim Buckley | Blue Afternoon | ||
2000 | Caribbean Jazz Project | New Horizons | ||
2001 | Caribbean Jazz Project | Paraiso | ||
2000 | Jimmy Cobb | So Nobody Else Can Hear | ||
1977 | Billy Cobham | Inner Conflicts | ||
1978 | Billy Cobham | Alivemutherforya | ||
1978 | Billy Cobham | Simplicity of Expression | ||
2007 | Paula Cole | Courage | ||
1975 | Larry Coryell | Level One | Arista | 12-string guitar on title track |
1975 | Larry Coryell | Planet End | Vanguard | Guest appearance |
1976 | Larry Coryell | Aspects | Arista | Guest appearance on acoustic guitar |
1989 | Eddie Daniels | Blackwood | ||
1989 | Miles Davis | Amandla | ||
1992 | Mark Egan | Beyond Words | ||
1989 | Elements | Liberal Arts | ||
1982 | Donald Fagen | The Nightfly | Acoustic guitar on "New Frontier" | |
1969 | Wilton Felder | Bullitt | ||
1977 | Maynard Ferguson | New Vintage | ||
1985 | Aretha Franklin | Who's Zoomin' Who? | ||
1989 | Aretha Franklin | Through the Storm | ||
1982 | Michael Franks | Objects of Desire | ||
1985 | Michael Franks | Skin Dive | ||
1987 | Michael Franks | The Camera Never Lies | ||
1993 | Michael Franks | Dragonfly Summer | ||
1999 | Michael Franks | Barefoot on the Beach | ||
1976 | Grant Green | The Main Attraction | ||
1976 | Freddie Hubbard | Windjammer | ||
1977 | Bob James | Heads | Tappan Zee/Columbia | |
1979 | Bob James | Lucky Seven | Tappan Zee/Columbia | |
1981 | Bob James | Sign of the Times | Tappan Zee/Columbia | |
1981 | Bob James | All Around the Town | Tappan Zee/Columbia | |
1983 | Bob James | The Genie: Themes & Variations from the TV Series "Taxi" | Tappan Zee/Columbia | |
1983 | Bob James | Foxie | Tappan Zee/Columbia | |
1984 | Bob James | 12 | Tappan Zee/Columbia | |
1987 | Bob James | Obsession | Warner Bros. | |
1995 | Bob James | The Swan | Tappan Zee/Columbia | |
1977 | Billy Joel | The Stranger | Columbia | |
1978 | Billy Joel | 52nd Street | Columbia | |
1980 | Chaka Khan | Naughty | ||
1976 | Hubert Laws | Romeo & Juliet | Columbia | Khan on one track |
1977 | Kenny Loggins | Celebrate Me Home | ||
1981 | Mike Mainieri | Wanderlust | Warner Bros. | |
1976 | Steve Marcus | Sometime Other Than Now | ||
1992 | Mendoza/Mardin Project | Jazzpaña | ||
2005 | Jason Miles | Cozmopolitan | Jason Miles | Khan on one track. Self-released recording from 1979. |
1969 | Phil Moore Jr. | Right On | Atlantic | |
1977 | Walter Murphy | Rhapsody in Blue | Private Stock | Khan on two tracks. |
1978 | Pages | Pages | ||
1978 | Eddie Palmieri | Euphoria | ||
1975 | Esther Phillips w/Beck | What a Diff'rence a Day Makes | Kudu, CTI | Khan on rhythm guitar |
1976 | Esther Phillips | Capricorn Princess | Kudu, CTI | Khan on three tracks. |
1976 | Esther Phillips with Beck | For All We Know | Kudu, CTI | Khan on rhythm guitar. |
1989 | Lou Rawls | At Last | Blue Note | Khan on three tracks. |
1990 | Lou Rawls | It's Supposed to Be Fun | Blue Note | Khan on three tracks. |
1997 | Philippe Saisse | Next Voyage | ||
1989 | Dave Samuels | Ten Degrees North | ||
1998 | Dave Samuels | Tjader-ized: A Cal Tjader Tribute | ||
1975 | David Sanborn | Taking Off | Warner Bros. | Khan is main guitarist here and wrote two of the nine tracks. |
1978 | Helen Schneider | Let It Be Now | ||
1985 | Diane Schuur | Deedles | ||
1988 | Diane Schuur | Talkin' 'Bout You | ||
1980 | Don Sebesky | Sebesky Fantasy | ||
1993 | John Sebastian | Tar Beach | ||
1978 | Ben Sidran | Live at Montreux | Arista | |
1984 | Ben Sidran | Bop City | Antilles, Baybridge | |
1993 | Ben Sidran | Life's a Lesson | Go Jazz | |
2013 | Janis Siegel | Nightsongs: A Late Night Interlude | ||
1977 | Phoebe Snow | Never Letting Go | ||
1978 | Phoebe Snow | Against the Grain | ||
1977 | Steely Dan | Aja | Khan on one track. | |
1980 | Steely Dan | Gaucho | ||
1989 | Steps Ahead | N.Y.C. | ||
1992 | Steps Ahead | Yin-Yang | ||
1988 | Mike Stern | Time in Place | ||
1999 | Dave Valentin | Sunshower | ||
1976 | Grover Washington Jr. | A Secret Place | ||
1989 | Kirk Whalum | The Promise | ||
2005 | Joe Zawinul | Weather Update | ||
2003 | Guillermo Carrasco | Una a la vez | eMG | Khan on guitar, tracks El Camino, El Arbol, Lucía. |
Books
- Pentatonic Khancepts (Alfred Music, 2002)
- Contemporary Chord Khancepts (Alfred Music, 1996)
- Wes Montgomery Guitar Folio (Jamey Aebersold, 1973)
- Pat Martino: The Early Years (Alfred Music, 1991)
References
- Yanow, Scott (2013). The Great Jazz Guitarists. San Francisco: Backbeat. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-61713-023-6.
- Collar, Matt. "Steve Khan". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
- Yanow, Scott. "Evidence". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
- "Steve Khan Biography". Steve Khan. Retrieved 30 September 2016.