Jorma Kaukonen of Hot Tuna, on tour in NJ, releasing legendary Janis Joplin collaboration

You know about Jorma and Jack, but how about Jorma and Janis?

Singer and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady are back on the road as the classic rock and blues powerhouse Hot Tuna. The band is set to pass through our region in December, and Kaukonen said he and Casady are “darned excited” to be doing so.

The gigs will follow this weekend's long-awaited release of a storied, nearly 60-year-old recording of Kaukonen jamming with the late great Janis Joplin.

Hot Tuna plays Friday, Dec. 2, and Saturday, Dec. 3, at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y., followed by engagements Monday, Dec. 5, at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, and Wednesday, Dec. 7, at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair.

“After all these years, that tri-state area has just been like a second home to us,” said Kaukonen.

This has been a landmark year for Kaukonen and Casady, with the tandem marking 50 years since the release of Hot Tuna’s debut studio album, “Burgers,” in 1972. It’s been more than a decade since their last album together, 2011’s “Steady As She Goes,” and Kaukonen revealed they’re getting ready to return to the studio once the songs are in place.

“A lot of it has to do with material,” said Kaukonen. “One of the things is over the years I’ve written a lot of songs, ... but I’m not really a prolific writer. I just kind of have to get kicked in the (butt) to do stuff. But we actually do have a couple of new songs in the works, and I think that we’re just collecting stuff.”

Kaukonen and Casady are Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award honorees, 1968 Best New Artist Grammy nominees and, as of October, recipients of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, all thanks to their time as part of Jefferson Airplane. Theirs is a no-nonsense, remarkably fruitful partnership that’s spanned decades, vividly captured in the 1969 live recordings released in 2019 as “Bear’s Sonic Journals: Before We Were Them,” and still ringing through loud and clear today.

“One of the things that Jack and I are good at is that there’s no (expletive) between us when we work in the studio or when we rehearse or when we play, ever,” Kaukonen said. “So once we get our ducks in a row, I think it will be a really painless project to make the record.”

‘Kindred spirits’

In the meantime, Kaukonen is opening up his archives in honor of the Friday, Nov. 25, observance of Record Store Day, an event where limited edition vinyl releases are exclusively available at independently-owned shops.

"There is something that lends more gravitas," Kaukonen said, " ... to buying a piece of vinyl, cutting some time out of your day to ... sit down and listen to two sides of a record."

The first two volumes of Kaukonen's "The River Flows" collaboration with singer and guitarist John Hurlbut sold out their Record Store Day runs in 2020 and 2021. Friday will see the first-ever vinyl release of Kaukonen’s 1998 album “Too Many Years,” thanks to Culture Factory and his Fur Peace Ranch Records. The LP features Kaukonen alongside former Hot Tuna players Pete Sears and Michael Falzarano.

“The Legendary Typewriter Tape: 6/25/64 Jorma’s House” also arrives on Friday, bringing a piece of often-whispered-about rock ’n’ roll history to modern turntables. The record is a fly-on-the-wall document capturing a rehearsal between Kaukonen and Janis Joplin, both at the time up-and-coming musicians in the Bay Area of California.

Kaukonen and Joplin met in 1962 at a hootenanny while he was attending Santa Clara University, and he began accompanying her at gigs around the area.

“At the time, with this tiny little coffee shop that I doubt held more than 40 or 45 people, she needed somebody to back her up. We were just fooling around backstage, and we just kind of liked each other musically,” Kaukonen said.

Kaukonen and Joplin continued to cross paths over the years, until her death in 1970 at the age of 27. Both played the Monterey International Pop Festival in California in 1967, and Woodstock in upstate New York in 1969.

But the musical connection between the two has been under-reported. For example, Kaukonen said he was interviewed for the 2015 documentary “Janis: Little Girl Blue,” but no footage of him was used in the film.

“The reason was (that) Janis and I never did drugs," he said. "We didn’t have sex, that wasn’t an issue with us then. We just loved the music, and we felt (that we found) kindred spirits in each other."

After the Record Store Day release, the Kaukonen and Joplin recording will be released on CD and digital outlets by Omnivore Recordings on Friday, Dec. 2.

What’s remarkable about the “Typewriter Tape” (so named for the background clacking sound of Kaukonen’s then-wife, Margareta, on a nearby typewriter) is how much the pre-fame singer and guitarist sound like themselves. His elegant and weathered guitar work is on full display, as is her unmistakale beyond-her-years folk/blues growl.

“Honestly, one of the things that hits me when I hear old recordings like that, and it’s going to sound stupid to say but I’m going to say it anyway, (is that) we were pretty darn good for kids,” Kaukonen said.

Go: Hot Tuna Electric, doors at 6:30 p.m. and show at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, and Saturday, Dec. 3, Capitol Theatre, 149 Westchester Ave., Port Chester, $55 to $95; thecapitoltheatre.com.

Also: Doors at 6:30 p.m. and show at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5, Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre, Count Basie Center for the Arts, 99 Monmouth St., Red Bank, $35 to $89; thebasie.org.

And: Doors at 7 and show at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 7, Wellmont Theater, 5 Seymour St., Montclair, $39.50 to $99.50; wellmonttheater.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jorma Kaukonen of Hot Tuna on tour, releasing Janis Joplin recordings