Jan. 1, 2018

On July 20, 2018 after a nearly 10 year-long hiatus, Jan Hammer - whose extensive body of work has spanned the musical spectrum from jazz to prog to classical to pop - will release Seasons Pt. 1, a compilation of existing musical sketches that Jan developed into full length compositions and selections that were created just for this album. Why the delay? Laughing, Hammer emphatically says, “It’s about time.”
“I’ve actually been thinking about releasing something new for 6 or 7 years,” he continues. “This is what happens - musical ideas had accumulated in my head over time until I suddenly realized that I had more than enough for an album.” In fact, Hammer says that he’s already at work developing what now only exist as sketches for a follow up album, which will be aptly titled Seasons Pt 2…

The Complete Jan Akkerman is a new 26 CD box set which brings together all the studio albums (and more) of Dutch guitar legend Jan Akkerman, who found international success with the band Focus. The creative guitarist is well known for his individualistic style, combining rock, jazz, blues, and baroque into his solo projects. This 26-disc set includes the solo studio long-players, his most important live recordings and a CD of rare and previously unreleased tracks.
The booklet includes a biography, some unpublished photos and an album-to-album breakdown, featuring full credits (including never-before-published facts about who played what on specific albums) and Jan’s own memories about the 23 studio and live albums, taken from recent interviews with Jan…