Jan Akkerman
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
During the late 1960s, Akkerman, Van der Linden, bassist Bert Ruiter, and singer Kaz Lux formed Brainbox, who were good enough to get a recording contract with Parlophone Records. He was involved with an early incarnation of the group Focus, founded by conservatory-trained flautist Thijs Van Leer, but join until after that group had issued its unsuccessful debut album -- he took Van der Linden with him from Brainbox and, with Van Leer and bassist Cyril Havermans (later succeeded by Ruiter) from the original Focus, formed a new group of that name. With Akkermans virtuoso guitar work and arrangments coupled to Van Leers classical influence (and his yodeling on their breakthrough hit, Hocus Pocus), the new group found a large international audience beginning in 1972, which transformed Akkerman into a superstar guitarist.
His solo career actually dated from 1968, though his attempt at a solo album, later titled Guitar For Sale -- containing his covers of numbers such as Whatd I Day, Ode To Billy Joe, and Green Onions -was so primitive by the standards of the time, that it was deemed unreleasable until Akkerman started topping reader surveys in the mid-1970s. Profile, released in 1972 after hed begun making some headway with his reputation, also dated from 1969 and his days with Brainbox. Akkermans first real solo album reflecting his music and interests at the time appeared in 1974, in the form of Tabernakel, which was recorded during the summer of that year at Atlantic Recording Studios in New York -- having finally acquired a medieval lute of his own, he taught himself to play it and the results comprise more than half of this LP, made up of authentic medieval music and originals composed in a medieval mode. It was certainly the most unusual record ever to feature the playing of Tim Bogart (bass) and Carmine Appice (drums), as well as soul drummer Ray Lucas.
After leaving Focus in 1976, Akkerman began releasing a stream of solo albums, which frequently embraced classical, jazz, and blues, and started leading his own bands. Much of his work during the 1980s wasnt released officially outside of Holland, but his periodic recordings with Van Leer, coupled with efforts to revive Focus with its two major stars, kept his name circulating in international music circles. The only problem that Akkerman faces derives from the sheer eclecticism of his work, which makes him very difficult to categorize -- two different branches of Tower Records in the same city list him as a jazz and a rock artist, respectively, but one could just as easily make a claim for him as a classical artist. ~ Bruce Eder
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