The First Seven Days
Encyclopedia
The First Seven Days is an album recorded by jazz musician Jan Hammer
in 1975. It features extensive use of synthesizer
s, including the synthesized "guitar" parts (as on his follow-up album, Oh Yeah?
), with the record jacket stating, "For those concerned: there is no guitar on this album." it is considered one of the pioneering works of acid jazz
. Other instruments used are grand piano, electric violin and percussion.
It is a musical telling of the Genesis creation story. The record jacket continues with "Assuming that each of these "days" lasted anywhere from one day to a hundred million years, the scientific and biblical views do meet in certain points. These points were the inspiration for this album, and, besides, the provided me with an excuse to write seven new pieces of music."
(On the LP version, side 2 begins with track 5.)
Jan Hammer
Jan Hammer is a composer, pianist and keyboardist. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970s, as well as his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the popular 1980s...
in 1975. It features extensive use of synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s, including the synthesized "guitar" parts (as on his follow-up album, Oh Yeah?
Oh Yeah?
Oh Yeah? is an album recorded by jazz fusion musician Jan Hammer in 1976.-Track listing:# Magical Dog - Hammer # One to One - Hammer, Smith # Evolove - Rick Laird # Oh, Yeah? - Hammer, Saunders...
), with the record jacket stating, "For those concerned: there is no guitar on this album." it is considered one of the pioneering works of acid jazz
Acid jazz
Acid jazz is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Grant Green are...
. Other instruments used are grand piano, electric violin and percussion.
It is a musical telling of the Genesis creation story. The record jacket continues with "Assuming that each of these "days" lasted anywhere from one day to a hundred million years, the scientific and biblical views do meet in certain points. These points were the inspiration for this album, and, besides, the provided me with an excuse to write seven new pieces of music."
Track listing
All tracks composed by Jan Hammer(On the LP version, side 2 begins with track 5.)
- "Darkness/Earth in Search of a Sun" (4:30)
- "Light/Sun" (6:40)
- "Oceans and Continents" (6:14)
- "Fourth Day — Plants and Trees" (2:44)
- "The Animals" (6:09)
- "Sixth Day — the People" (7:11)
- "The Seventh Day" (6:08)
Personnel
- Jan Hammer - producer, engineer, piano, electric piano, Moog synthesizerMoog synthesizerMoog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
, Oberheim synthesizer and digital sequencerMusic sequencerThe music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
, drums, percussion, Freeman string synthesizerFreeman string symphonizerThe Freeman String Symphonizer was a 5 octave synthesizer of the mid 1970s. It was manufactured by the Chicago Musical Instrument Co. and was also known as the Cordovox CSS. Its sound was similar to that of the Arp String Ensemble - cool glassy sounding strings...
(sic), MellotronMellotronThe Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music... - David Earle JohnsonDavid Earle JohnsonDavid Earle Johnson was a percussionist, a composer and a music producer.-Career:Percussionist David Earle Johnson performed on albums by a number of jazz artists in the seventies before releasing a few of his own albums in the late seventies and early eighties...
- congas & percussion (tracks 5 and 6) - Steven Kindler - violin (tracks 2, 5, 6, and 7)
Production
- Recorded at Red Gate Studios, Kent, New YorkKent, New YorkKent is a town in Putnam County, New York, United States. The population was 14,009 at the 2000 census. The name is that of an early settler family. The town is the north-central part of the Putnam County. Many of the lakes are reservoirs for New York City....
- Andy Topeka - assistant engineer, custom audio installations
- Milton GlaserMilton GlaserMilton Glaser is a graphic designer, best known for the I Love New York logo, his "Bob Dylan" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968.-Biography:Glaser was born into a Hungarian...
- cover illustration - Paula ScherPaula ScherPaula Scher, born October 6, 1948, in Washington, DC., is an American graphic designer, illustrator, painter and art educator in design, and the first female principal at Pentagram, which she joined in 1991...
- art direction