Just taking a moment to mention the great Papa John Creach. He joined the Airplane in 70 and was very influential on the music of the last couple of LP's by JA and was a part of the early Jefferson Starship lineup. A brilliant idea by the band to bring new life and sound to the evolving band.
Creach began playing violin in Chicago bars when the family moved there in 1935, and eventually joined a local cabaret band, the Chocolate Music Bars. Moving to L.A. in 1945, he played in the Chi Chi Club, spent time working on an ocean liner, appeared in a couple of films, and performed as a duo with Nina Russell.
In 1967, Creach met and befriended drummer Joey Covington. When Covington joined the Jefferson Airplane in 1970, he introduced them to Creach, who was invited to join Hot Tuna. He would remain with the band, although legally regarded as a session musician, for the next five years, before leaving in August 1975 to concentrate on a solo career. Despite this, he was a guest musician on the spring 1978 Jefferson Starship tour. A year later, he renewed his working relationship with Covington as a member of the San Francisco All-Stars, as well as Covington's Airplane predecessor, Spencer Dryden, as a member of The Dinosaurs (1982–89). He also continued with occasional guest appearances with Hot Tuna, and was on stage at the Fillmore Auditorium in 1988 when Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen of Hot Tuna were reunited with Paul Kantner and Grace Slick for the first time since Jefferson Airplane disbanded.
In 1992, he became one of the original members of Jefferson Starship - The Next Generation, and performed with them until suffering a heart attack during the 1994 Northridge earthquake on January 17, 1994. Because of this, Creach contracted pneumonia, from which he died a month later at the age of 76.
Jefferson Starship performed a benefit concert to raise money for his family after his death and released tracks from their performances as the album Deep Space/Virgin Sky.
Showing posts with label Papa John Creach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Papa John Creach. Show all posts
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
FILTHY GRUNT

Filthy! is Papa John Creach's second solo album and the first with his band Zulu. The guitarist of Zulu would later be known as Keb' Mo'. Hot Tuna also makes an appearance on the album on the track "Walking the Tou Tou," written by Jorma Kaukonen.
Violinist Papa John Creach first came to the notice of rock fans when he joined Jefferson Airplane and its spin-off group, Hot Tuna, in 1970. By that time, he was already in his early fifties, a veteran of jazz and blues associations, while his fellow bandmembers were still approaching 30. Nevertheless, using an electrified violin, Creach added a new psychedelic edge to the Airplane in its final days. The band split in 1972, by which time Creach had begun to release solo albums on its custom label, Grunt. The Airplane was reorganized and relaunched as Jefferson Starship, and Creach was with it through its million-selling Red Octopus album in 1975. He continued to make solo albums through 1992, when he released Papa Blues. Papa John Creach died of heart failure in 1994 at the age of 76. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Thursday, December 3, 2009
PLUCKIN' A FUNKY GRUNT


(Grace Slick, for example, duets with Creach on the lead-off track, "The Janitor Drives a Cadillac"), Quicksilver Messenger Service, and the Grateful Dead. The result sounds like the Airplane records of the period, with a bit more of Creach's electric violin soaring over the proceedings. Review by William Ruhlmann
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