Jan Akkerman
Dutch guitarist Jan Akkerman is considered one of the best European jazz-rock guitar players over almost four decades. He is an internationally acclaimed musician who also wrote art-rock history with his band Focus and laid the foundation for today’s progressive rock scene. Akkerman, born in Amsterdam on December 24th 1946, played in many bands in the sixties, among them the legendary band Brainbox, before he joined keyboardist and flutist Thijs van Leer and his band Focus. In 1973 they topped the British pop charts at number four with their instrumental single “Sylvia”. And in the same year Akkerman was voted world’s best guitarist by British magazine Melody Maker. Musically speaking, Akkerman always pushed the envelope, combining jazz, rock, classical music and odd humor - Focus was at the time probably one of the best and most unpredictable bands the European rock scene could offer. Framus created a signature model for Jan during these successful years and the guitar didn’t comply with the current cliches of guitar design: “Framus presents: Jan Akkerman. The world’s leading guitar.” That sounded self-assured and there was also a “Lifetime Warranty”. The Jan Akkerman guitar is considered an icon of European guitar design - a semi-solid instrument with an enlarged Les Paul shape, f-hole, classic simplicity, timeless beauty, and most of all not a lightweight. Akkerman left Focus in early 1976 and started his solo career. He released numerous LPs/CDs that had the most varied musical directions - historic, ethnic, Anglo-Saxon, Afro-American, Latin American and modern jazz music was to be heard from him in the following years. Akkerman, who stays busy in the studio and on stage was awarded the Golden Harp by the Dutch foundation Conamus as a tribute to his complete works.