#Hot Tuna

[undergroundrockpress]

Hot Tuna, 1972.

[jt1674]

[balthazar-sketti]

Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady aka Hot Tuna

"Mann's Fate", 1969

[upperswampmonkey]

Hot Tuna - Keep On Truckin'

[rastronomicals]

Jack Casady

[hoppkorv]

Jorma Kaukonen

Photo by Richard McCaffrey

[de-salva]

HOT TUNA - Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burning

Alb. "Hot Tuna" (1970)

Personnel:

Jorma Kaukonen – acoustic guitar, vocals Jack Casady – bass guitar

Additional personnel:

Will Scarlett – harmonica

[affiches-concerts]

Hot Tuna (Kaukonen-Casady), 1971.

[krispyweiss]

Hot Tuna Acoustic at Natalie’s Grandview, Columbus, Ohio, July 11, 2024

Just how long have Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady been playing together?

So long that the old friends took a moment toward the end of their sold-out, Columbus, Ohio, show to reminisce about their first band, Jefferson Airplane, opening for Dizzy Gillespie on New Year’s Eve 1965.

So while it might be reasonable to assume the men - known together as Hot Tuna - see their work as a grind, the opposite is true. The July 11 performance inside Natalie’s Grandview marked their first gig in five months, a big gap they were happy to bridge, according to their between-song chatter and the undefinable extra spark that permeated the music and belied the octogenarian reality of the band.

At 83, Kaukonen remains a nimble finger-picking acoustic guitarist capable of subtle, quiet playing and aggressive, loud blues. Electric bassist Casady, 80, meanwhile, is a lead player on a rhythm instrument who consistently finds the sweet spot between support and showcase. Together, they’re as close to one musician as two musicians can be even as they’re walking down the same musical paths with very different gaits.

Opening with “Ain’t in No Hurry” and choosing 18 songs on the fly from a master list, Kaukonen and Casady played familiar chestnuts from their repertoire including “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” and “Hesitation Blues;” newer, lighthearted additions such as “Where Have My Good Friends Gone;” and closed after 100 minutes with “True Religion.”

The musical closeness Hot Tuna share within the music is also evident outside of it, something easy to pick up on in a venue so intimate, the face of Casady’s smart watch was visible from the audience. As the friends and colleagues continued their six-decade-plus conversation, they exchanged knowing glances, beaming smiles and inside signals known only to them but visible to all. Often lost in the music, Casady would mouth the words Kaukonen sang, move his lower body to his own low notes and throw his head back in aural ecstasy as Kaukonen riffed away in the chair beside his.

“It’s been swell, Jack,” Kaukonen said through a wide smile that showed his gold tooth sparkling in the stage lights.

And it was that. And more.

Grade card: Hot Tuna Acoustic at Natalie’s Grandview, Columbus, Ohio - 7/11/24 - A

7/12/24

[angeloftheodd]

Happy 55th anniversary of Woodstock! 🌻✌️💖

Seeing Hot Tuna live was groovy af. ☮️😻

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[spilladabalia]

Hot Tuna - Water Song - 3/22/1973 - 46th Street Rock Palace - Brooklyn, NYC -

[undergroundrockpress]

A Benefit for White Panther Party Legal Defense. Guy Colwell / 1968.

[jt1674]

[zimtrim]

Hot Tuna - Jorma Koukonen

[upperswampmonkey]

Hot Tuna - Water Song

[rastronomicals]

Jack Casady