Early life Jan Hammer was born in
Prague, then capital of
Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). His mother was
Vlasta Průchová, a well-known Czech singer, and his father was a doctor who worked his way through school playing
vibraphone and bass guitar. Hammer began playing the piano at the age of four and his formal instruction started two years later. Hammer's studies at the academy were cut short when the
Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia on 20 August 1968. He recorded a jazz trio live album at "The Domicile" in Munich on 30 August 1968. This was released as
Malma Maliny by the German label MPS Records. He stayed in Munich and worked with actress
Kai Fischer on her debut album "Kai Fidelity". Hammer decided to move to the United States and resolved to become a citizen after receiving a scholarship at
Berklee College of Music in
Boston. On 2 November 1985, the
Miami Vice Soundtrack hit number one on the
Billboard Top Pop album charts. In a 2014 interview with the
Rolling Stone he claimed he always felt halfway between experimental music and prog-rock. He also claimed to have recorded the theme song for
Miami Vice before the series was made, and that it had been the piece he presented to
Michael Mann when announcing his interest of being involved with the series. He stated that he used a
Fairlight CMI to compose the music to the series while sampling drums and percussion into it with real acoustic sound. He added that he would have been interested in scoring the
2006 film version of Miami Vice, but that he was never approached by Michael Mann about it. He recorded a version of the
Squidbillies theme in 2014. On 20 July 2018 he released his first album of new material in over 10 years:
Seasons – Part 1. == Personal life ==