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The musical paths of Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady were long ago linked by two very different collective partnerships.
Early in the 1960s, an amplified and electrified music revolution flipped the switch on the stripped-down genre of basic rock-and-roll, and Mr. Kaukonen and Mr. Casady, who were comfortable with both styles of music, found their way through a wildly successful identity crisis as a result of the changing times.
The two were childhood friends from their days growing up in Washington, D.C., and, after reuniting in California they successfully—and almost simultaneously—navigated the rocky road of
the music industry with not one, but two separate bands.
One of those bands—Hot Tuna—has stood the test of time and will perform at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Sunday, December 6, at 8 p.m.
Mr. Kaukonen was an up-and-coming guitarist and an early member of the band Jefferson Airplane, which, in 1965, was on the front lines of the psychedelic rock explosion in San Francisco. Mr. Casady joined the band shortly thereafter, and seemingly overnight, the Airplane had become a household name, rocking on to become the only band to play all three famous rock festivals of the 1960s, at Monterey, Woodstock and Altamont.
But during the early days of their friendship, and long before the Airplane began to fill huge venues with amped-up electric rock, Mr. Kaukonen and Mr. Casady played acoustic music together, drawing on the influence of early folk and blues musicians. They were true to their roots, even after the Airplane hit it big, and performed together as Hot Tuna, playing a more stripped-down sound than fans of the Airplane had come to expect of them.
“When I started, people had gotten to know me as playing electric guitar, so they were surprised when we started doing the acoustic thing,” Mr. Kaukonen said during a phone interview from his home outside Columbus, Ohio. “But we had the visibility that Airplane gave us, so people were listening.”
And, as it turned out, Hot Tuna was more than just a sideshow. By late 1970, the band had gained its own dedicated following, and actually went on tour alongside Jefferson Airplane, giving Mr. Kaukonen, on guitar, and Mr. Casady, on bass, the rare distinction of playing with two different bands together on tour.
The Airplane disbanded in 1972, but after countless tours and 25 studio albums later, Hot Tuna is still going strong. Mr. Kaukonen and Mr. Casady are joined on their current tour by another master of the craft, mandolin player Barry Mitterhoff.
“As scary as it sounds, we’ve been playing together for 52 years,” Mr. Kaukonen said when asked about his partnership with Mr. Casady. “In the beginning, when you’re just learning how to play, you play the music you love. And there were always common threads to our music.”
Mr. Kaukonen was four years older than Mr. Casady and they briefly went their separate ways after high school. During that time, Mr. Kaukonen focused on the finger-picking guitar style made legendary by Reverend Gary Davis, while Mr. Casady experimented with electric guitar and bass, instrumentation that was controversial at that time within established blues, jazz and folk circles.
Mr. Kaukonen and Mr. Casady reunited in California in 1965 with Jefferson Airplane, but because they wanted to stay in touch with their musical roots, they formed Hot Tuna four years later, during a break in the Airplane’s busy touring schedule.
By the time Jefferson Airplane broke up, Hot Tuna had already released two albums—a self-titled debut album as well as the follow-up, and critically acclaimed electric album, “First Pull Up, Then Pull Down.” With its first two albums, Hot Tuna had established itself as a versatile band that recorded and performed with few boundaries.
Hot Tuna’s acoustic style shone through early on, but Mr. Kaukonen and Mr. Casady were also members of Jefferson Airplane, which had found success playing electric rock. As the craving for loud music became more ravenous, even Hot Tuna developed electric set lists, and at one point in the mid 1970s the band abandoned acoustic music altogether.
But Mr. Kaukonen said he tended to focus more on acoustic guitar during his career, adding that it was only “once the Airplane got rolling” that he focused on playing electric guitar for the better part of a decade. After that, he “really mixed it up” and now continues to play both acoustic and electric guitar on a regular basis. Sunday night’s show at the PAC, he said, will feature only acoustic music.
“We play everywhere from the Stephen Talkhouse to the Beacon Theatre,” Mr. Kaukonen said, referencing two legendary New York music venues, one of which, the Talkhouse, is located on the East End, in Amagansett. “And we play everything from the erection to the resurrection.”
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