Earth (Still Our Only Home)

Jerry Goodman (acoustic violin, electric violin, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, acoustic mandolin, electric mandolin, viola, vocals) and Jan Hammer (piano, electric piano, synthesizer, Moog synthesizer, electric bass, drums). From the album Like Children (1974).

When the Mahavisnu Orquestra split up in 1973, Hammer recorded Like Children (1974) with Goodman doing overdubbing. In 1974 he collaborated playing piano, organ and synthesizers in Timeless by the guitarist John Abercrombie for ECM Records, and contributed two of the album’s tracks introducing a large dose of jazz fusion. In 1975 he launched The First Seven Days combining jazz, rock and classical music supported by Steve Kindler playing violin, guitar and singing, and David Earle Johnson on congas and percussion. Hammer used piano, electric piano, Moog synthesizer, Oberheim synthesizer, Freeman string synthesizer and Mellotron.

String synthesizers are designed to produce sounds similar to those of a string orchestra and the Mellotron is a polyphonic electro-mechanical keyboard initially built in England in 1963. The album was recorded and produced at the Red Gate Studio, which Hammer had built on a piece of land in upstate New York, and all his later recordings were made there. In 1976 he founded the Jan Hammer Group to make a presentation tour of The First Seven Days with Kindler and Johnson, adding electric bassist Fernando Sanders and drummer Tony Smith, and the album was well received by both jazz and rock critics.

Also in 1976 they published Oh Yeah? and in 1977 Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live came out with songs from a tour the band did with English rock guitarist Jeff Beck. In addition, Hammer participated in Beck’s jazz-rock album Wired (1976), in which he composed one of the tracks, and which was certified platinum. In 1977 he recorded Melodies, the last work with the Jan Hammer Group, featuring jazz fusion mixed with rhythm and blues and funky moments.