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November 1969. The Shaffy Theatre, Amsterdam. There, Jan Akkerman had been invited to jam with the Thijs Van Leer Trio at the suggestion of bass player Martin Dresden. Dresden was active in promoting gigs on the college circuit in Holland and knew of Akkerman's talents. The trio desperately needed a guitar player and from that first session the spark that was to ignite "Focus" had arrived.

Jan Akkerman was a well-established pop name in Holland starting out in the late-'50s with The Friendship Sextet and progressing through several sixties bands chief of which was The Hunters. In a country not known for its innovation in pop music, Akkerman was - at the age of 20 - slightly ahead of the game. His licks on "The Russian Spy And I" feature the characteristic glissando sound displayed later with Focus, and an idiosyncratic technique.

In late-1969 Akkerman left Brainbox, a hard-rock outfit he fronted with singer Kaz Lux, and was looking for a new 'gig'. Shortly after the early sessions at Amsterdam's Birds Club the nucleus of Focus were taken to the Sound Techniques studio in London under the direction of mentor Hubert Terheggen. They fitted in the recording sessions during a residency as the house band for the Amsterdam version of the hit musical "Hair". Some months later, "In And Out Of Focus" was released.

Jan Akkerman was born on 24 December 1946, in Amsterdam. His father played guitar but it was Jan's mother who encouraged Jan to play the accordion. Fortunately Jan took up the guitar at the age of 8 and at the age of 12 made his first "single", a version of the classical theme "Exodus". His first recording band Johnny And The Cellar Rockers included for a time Pierre Van Der Linden with whom he was to musically reunite in the "classic" Focus line-up of 1972/3. In the '60s Jan was influenced by jazz , ethnic and latin music and the music coming from England such as The Beatles and The Shadows. "It is easy to make the link to Focus", he says.

IN AND OUT OF FOCUS

Thijs Van Leer was a classically trained musician who was gaining a growing reputation as an arranger and writer. The band they formed, Focus, were to achieve international renown, especially in 1973 when they charted in several countries with albums and singles and undertook extensive tours.

Both Van Leer and Akkerman produced solo albums whilst with Focus. Akkerman had recorded tracks in 1969 which were hastily released in 1972 to capitalise on his band success and, in 1974, there was an album of acoustic and lute tunes with orchestral arrangements by the American music professor George Flynn. The solo career of Van Leer(he was to become one of Holland's top-selling solo performers)was actually instrumental in the break-up of Focus whose later output lacked the early originality and musicality.

Akkerman by late-1975, after a punishing tour of Japan, had become weary "like in a straitjacket, musically speaking". In January 1976 on the eve of a sell-out UK tour, he left Focus.

GOING SOLO

In the late-1970's Jan slowly withdrew from the international stage and cut a series of less commercial jazz-rock albums for the Atlantic label. His appearance at the 1978 Montreux Jazz Festival(featured on the "Live" album)was warmly received and the performance was not even marred by the fact that he dropped his trademark Les Paul half way through a version of "Tommy" !! Understandably, this catastrophe was edited out of the LP release.

In the 1980's Jan remained active in recording terms and it seemed that by 1989 an international career relaunch was imminent with his appearance at the "The Night Of The Guitars" gig in London and the album "The Noise Of Art" for Miles Copeland's IRS label. There was talk of soundtrack albums and a US tour but the wider exposure was short-lived.
 

There had been talk in Holland of a reunion with Thijs Van Leer and Focus, and this actually happened in 1990 when the original members of the classic 1972/3 line-up came together for a Dutch TV special "Gold of Old" in Appeldoorn. "It was okay and I saw Pierre again" said Akkerman, but not really a long-term project. Van Leer and Akkerman came together again in 1993 at the North Sea Jazz Festival(as a tribute to the late promoter Paul Acket) but this really drew a line underneath that part of Jan's musical history.

In 1992 Jan was involved in a horrendous car crash in Holland and was very lucky to escape disability. The CD "Puccini's Café" documents this experience and was recorded during his convalescence. His "comeback" gig at a small jazz festival in the north of Holland was greeted by an ecstatic crowd. Jan married his partner on the night of the crash, Marian, in 1993. Jan told a Dutch newspaper "I'd rather have her underneath me than underneath the car!"

Marian has to a very large extent rejuvenated Jan musically, making him more aware of his "history" and illustrious career. She was instrumental in organising the programme for the 1994/5 gigs "Songs My Father Taught Me..." which found Jan retracing his past and finding a sense of perspective. He is now altogether a happier and, it has to be said, more rounded performer at ease with both his audience, and himself.