You have to go back to 2006 to find City Paper‘s last mention of Jan Hammer, in Tricia Olszewski‘s review of Cocaine Cowboys. That follows a 10-year drought for Hammerheads since Mark Jenkins‘ review of A Modern Affair, in which Jenkins says “the fate that [director Vern] Oakley and writer Paul Zimmerman have devised for them is as corny as the film’s Jan Hammer score.”

This coming week, though, City Paper corrects this historic wrong.

In his review of British saxophonist John Surman‘s new album, Brent Burton compares the album favorably withMahavishnu Orchestra the trio his guitarist, John Abercrombie, playedled in the early ’70s. With Jack DeJohnette and…JAN HAMMER.

And Ben Westhoff reviews Savoir Adore‘s In the Wooded Forest, reaching the review’s halfway point before offhandedly mentioning that Savoire Adore’s Paul Hammer is son of Jan and RECORDED IN HIS HOUSE.

Area prog enthusiast Erik Wemple suggests Jeff Beck‘s “Darkness, Earth in Search of the Sun” as an entry point for Hammer newbies, but I think it’s best to start with non-deep cuts: the Miami Vice theme (album version!) and, for funnies, this particularly ill-advised collaboration with Journey guitarist Neil Schon:
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5uCKz7eCLU]
Why is Jan Hammer in a box wound with string? Jan Hammer should be free!