Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band from San Francisco, a pioneer of the LSD-influenced psychedelic rock movement. Various successor incarnations of the band have performed under different names, reflecting changing times and performer lineups, known as Jefferson Starship, and later simply Starship.

Reunion and remnants

Solo careers and the attractions of other bands beckoned throughout. But in 1989, during a solo San Francisco gig, Paul Kantner found himself joined by former bandmate (and lover) Grace Slick and two other ex-Airplane members for a cameo appearance. This led to a formal reunion of the original Jefferson Airplane (featuring nearly all the main members, including founder Marty Balin, but without Spencer Dryden, who had been kicked out of the band years earlier). A self-titled album was released by Columbia Records. The accompanying tour was a success, but their revival was short-lived, and thus Jefferson Airplane was officially disbanded for good.

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Dryden suffered financial and health problems and died of colon cancer on January 10 2005 at the age of 67. In 2004, Marty Balin pointed with well-deserved pride to the fact that unlike many of their contemporaries, all of the original members survived the 1960s.

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January 10 - 2005

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Kantner rejoined with Balin and Casady in 1985 to form the KBC Band, which released KBC Band (including the Kantner hit "America") in 1987 on Arista and also featured keyboardist Tim Gorman from the Who and guitarist Slick Aguilar from David Crosby's band.

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KBC Band - 1987

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Today, there are two versions of Jefferson Starship — one officially billed as Starship featuring Mickey Thomas (with Thomas at the forefront), and the revived Jefferson Starship (often called Jefferson Starship: The Next Generation), with Kantner and Balin as leaders, and Diana Mangano replacing Grace Slick as female singer (although Slick did do guest vocals on Jefferson Starship's 1999 album Windows Of Heaven). This latter band plays frequent concerts, and on occasion Jack Casady joins them as well. Mangano is an expressive and effective singer, and this revived Jefferson Starship can often capture a good deal of the feeling of the original Airplane.

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Diana Mangano - 1999

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