Biography
Jan Hammer is a Czech-American composer, musician and record producer. Born on 17 April 1948 in Prague, then in Czechoslovakia, he trained at the Prague Academy of Musical Arts before moving to the United States in 1968, where he studied at Berklee College of Music.
He first gained prominence as a keyboardist with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970s. Hammer is best known for his work on the television series Miami Vice (1984), for which he composed the theme and original scores for the first four seasons. The "Miami Vice Theme" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned him two Grammy Awards in 1986 for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and Best Instrumental Composition.
He has composed scores for numerous films and other television series, including Tales from the Crypt (1989) and Dark Angel (1990).
