Jan Akkerman Discography

Studio albums
1968 - Talent for Sale [35:57]
1972 - Profile [37:37] 1972 - Profile (Vinyl LP) [37:56]
1973 - Tabernakel [37:33] 1973 - Tabernakel (Vinyl LP) [37:41]
1976 - Eli (with Kaz Lux) [38:36] 1976 - Eli (with Kaz Lux) [Vinyl LP] [38:47]
1977 - Jan Akkerman [40:11] 1977 - Jan Akkerman (Vinyl LP) [40:46]
1978 - Aranjuez (with Claus Ogerman) [43:30] 1978 - Aranjuez (with Claus Ogerman) (Vinyl LP) [43:31]
1979 - 3 [33:47] 1979 - 3 (Vinyl LP) [34:02]
1980 - Transparental (with Kaz Lux) [Vinyl LP] [39:29]
1981 - Oil in the Family [37:00]
1982 - Pleasure Point [1:06:03] 1982 - Pleasure Point (1998 Remastered) [1:05:48] 1982 - Pleasure Point (Vinyl LP) [41:07]
1982 - It Could Happen To You [37:23]
1983 - Can't Stand Noise [1:10:55]
1984 - From the Basement [1:12:27] 1984 - From the Basement (1998 Remastered) [1:12:24]
1987 - Heartware [1:02:15] 1987 - Heartware (1998 Remastered) [1:16:06]
1990 - The Noise of Art [49:38]
1993 - Puccini's Cafe [47:27]
1994 - Blues Hearts [43:58]
1996 - Focus in Time [48:11]
1998 - Blues Root (with Curtis Knight) [55:02]

1999 - Passion (Acoustic) [52:55]
2003 - C.U. [1:00:18]
2011 - Minor Details [1:16:38]

2019 - Close Beauty [64:35]

Live albums
1978 - Live Montreux Jazz Festival 1978 [34:32] 1978 - Live Montreux Jazz Festival 1978 (Vinyl LP) [34:49]
1997 - 10.000 Clowns On A Rainy Day [2:12:09]
1999 - Live at Alexanders [1:11:47]
1999 - Live! The Kiel/Stuttgart Concert (with Joachim Kuhn) [33:55]
2006 - C.U.2 - Live in Tokyo [1:10:39]

Compilations
1986 - The Complete Guitarist [50:07]
2018 - Akkerarchives [1:18:47]

Complete Jan Akkerman Box Set

A box set containing 26 albums (nearly everything but not including Live at the Priory or his album with Joachim Kuhn, etc) has now been released. It is a nicely produced set worth having if you are a completist. Jan has provided brief notes on each album. Tabernakel is the third disc in the package.

Best ever albums

According to best ever abums Tabernakel is Jan Akkerman's third greatest album.

Pre-Tabernakel Solo Albums

Although Jan Akkerman had been involved in the recording of many albums before the release of Tabernakel (with Johnny and the cellar rockers, The Hunters, Brainbox, Focus and plenty of session work) it was only his third solo album. The two solo albums that precede Tabernakel are Talent for Sale (known as Guitar for Sale in the UK) and Profile, both on EMI labels.

Talent for Sale was originally a budget album appearing on mfp in the UK. Most of the tracks are covers and most are presented in the beat combo style accompanied mainly by Hunters band-mates Ron Bijtelaar and Sydney Wachtel (Jan's brother Cocky is credited as drummer on one track) . Sometimes orchestra and a brass section is used. The covers are taken from a variety of genres. There are instrumental versions of rhythm and blues numbers by Steve Winwood (On the Green light) and Ray Charles (What'd I say). Unsurprisingly there are covers of soul band Booker T and the MGs' Slim Jenkins Place and Green Onions.  As for country, there is an instrumental version of Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billy Joe. From the jazz end of things comes Bags Groove, popularised by Miles Davis in the fifties, Mercy mercy mercy, a surprise 1967 hit for Joe Zawinul plus Comin Home Baby, the closing track. Most left of field perhaps is Hineimatov, a Jewish traditional, recorded by Harry Belafonte in the early sixties. There are also two self-penned tracks, Revival of the cat and Moonbeam. On first listen it doesn't sound anything like Tabernakel. Nevertheless, listened to in the light of the subsequent album one notices the use of orchestration (arranged by Wim Jongbloed) and the variety of genres, typical of Tabernakel.

If Talent for sale is very much a late sixties album then Profile on EMI's progressive Harvest label is very much an early seventies thing to some extent. The original album had one long progressive piece on side one (Fresh air) and seven different tracks on the other side. Fresh Air is divided up into seven parts in the sleeve notes (Must Be My Land, Wrestling To Get Out, Back Again, The Fight, Fresh Air - Blue Notes For Listening, Water And Skies Are Telling Me and Happy Gabriel?). This is the first album with lute and so anticipates Tabernakel to that extent. There are only two tracks - the very jolly and anonymous Kemp's Jig and Akkerman's own Minstrel/Farmer's Dance. Classical guitar is represented by an Etude from Matteo Carcassi and Andante Sostenuto by Antonio Diabelli (Carcassi 1792-1853 was a leading 19th Century guitarist-composer. Born in Florence, he began as a pianist but changed to guitar, beginning a concert career in Germany in 1810. He was eventually based in Paris where he died. He left nearly 100 works for guitar, all of romantic taste, brilliant and technically demanding. His Method (Op 59) is still considered among the best didactic works of 19th Century guitar masters and his etudes (Op 60) are popular. Diabelli 1781-1858 wrote Andante Sostenuto for his Guitar Sonata (Op 29 No 3). It is described by one aficionado as ‘almost too beautiful to be true’.) With these tracks come Akkerman's own whistful Maybe just a dream and the upbeat but yearning Blue boy. The final track off the album is a blues work out called Stick. Although there is no orchestration this time, once again the mixing of genres is evident from track to track. There is a sense in which Lammy is really a configuration of the styles found on the two sides of Profile.

The Atlantic Years

Akkerman was with Atlantic Records from 1973-1978. Atlantic is the company founded in 1947 by the Ertegun brothers and two others. In 1967 it was taken over by Warner Brothers but allowed a measure of independence. Focus recorded with Polydor but Akkerman had previously been with EMI. They published his first album Talent for Sale (later known as Guitar for sale) as a budget album and had produced Profile on their progressive Harvest label.

The Akkerman albums with Atlantic were as follows:

1. Tabernakel

2. Eli (with Kaz Lux)

3. Jan Akkerman (featuring Jan in bed with his guitar on the sleeve)

4. Jan Akkerman Live (at the Montreux jazz festival)

5. Jan Akkerman 3 (released 1979)

Akkerman also appears on the 1978 Atlantic album by Joachim Kuhn Orange Drive. In 1980 Atlantic published the album The Best of Jan Akkerman and friends.

Only Tabernakel was recorded in the USA, the other studio albums being done at Soundpush in Blaricum, Holland. In the case of Jan Akkerman 3 there was a great deal of additional recording in another Dutch studio, and in New York (horns), London (strings and flutes) and California (final mixing).

In 1978 Akkerman moved to CBS where the first album was an orchestral one Aranjuez with Claus Ogerman. It would seem that the costs of producing orchestral albums and the relatively low sales of Akkerman albums meant that Atlantic were no longer willing to fork out the cash necessary. Akkerman did three albums with CBS but in 1982 Pleasurepoint was released on the WEA label (Warner Elektra Atlantic). (Jan also says Jan Akkerman 3 was so called because it was his third album for Warners which makes sense if we discount Eli and the live album.)

Other Lute Tracks

Apart from the lute tracks on Tabernakel there are very few examples of Akkerman playing the lute that are generally available. The only ones are

With Focus:
1. Elspeth of Nottingham* (Focus 3) with flute and some percussion
2. Delitae Musicae (Hamburger Concerto) with recorder
Recordings are also available of Akkerman doing Britannia as an encore at the Focus at the Rainbow gig

Solo (Profile)
1. Kemp's Jig
2. Minstrel/Farmer's dance*

(* Both Akkerman's own compositions)

We might add that on the acoustic album Passion, there are three lute tracks played on acoustic guitar:

1. Countess of Pembrooks Paradise (Holborne/Akkerman)
2. Muy Linda (Holborne/Akkerman)
3. The knight of the lute (Unknown/Akkerman)