On this day in 1965 singer-songwriter, Marty Balin, watched a frustrated hootenanny try-out walk off the stage of The Drinking Gourd in disgust over his performance. Balin liked what little he heard and was impressed by the man's ambition. He went backstage and asked him, Paul Kantner, if he would join a band he was forming for his new Haight-Ashbury club called The Matrix. Kantner agreed. He didn't know it at the time, but he and Balin had just formed a band that would become Jefferson Airplane.
In a matter of days, another Drinking Gourd singer, Signe Toly Anderson, would join. Kantner recruited his downstairs neighbor, Jorma Kaukonen, as another guitarist. A local drummer and bass guitarist filled out the group. Kaukonen would convince Jack Casady to become their new bass later in the year.
Six weeks after Balin and Kantner had their backstage chat, Jefferson Airplane debuted as the house band at The Matrix on August 13, 1965. The band was an instant success and went on to release their first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, a year later. Signe Toly Anderson (vocals) and Skip Spence (drummer) soon left and were replaced by Grace Slick and Spencer Dryden. The group's next album, Surrealistic Pillow, launched them to international success.
Today only Kaukonen, Cassady, and Slick survive out of the eight members of the Airplane in their first two years as they pioneered the San Francisco Sound.
Wikipedia.com, Jefferson Airplane
classicbands.com, Rock and Roll History
youtube.com, Signe Toly Anderson interview, KGON Portland, 2011
youtube.com. Mart Balin: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, Joe Vertino, producer, martybalin.net, 2009
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