Paul Katner born 17 March 1941

Paul Kantner (March 17, 1941 – January 28, 2016) was an American rock musician. He is best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and a secondary vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, a leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture era. He continued these roles as a member of Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Airplane's successor band. 

Paul Lorin Kantner born  in San Francisco, California was the son of Paul Sr, a travelling salesman and Cora (nee Fortier), who died when he was eight. His father sent him away to be educated by the Christian Brothers and then to a Jesuit school in Santa Clara. While studying at Santa Clara University and then San Jose State College he taught himself guitar and banjo, and set out to make a splash on the San Francisco folk circuit. Jefferson Airplane were formed in 1965, after the singer Marty Balin had met Kantner at the San Francisco folk club The Drinking Gourd. The original line-up included vocalist Signe Toly Anderson, Kaukonen, drummer Jerry Peloquin and a bluegrass-inclined double bass player, Bob Harvey. Their manager, Matthew Katz, bathetically dubbed their music “fo-jazz” (a mixture of folk and jazz).

Regular live performing soon brought changes, with Jack Casady coming in on bass – he was one of the most inventive and admired practitioners of the era – and the drum stool commandeered first by Skip Spence and then Spencer Dryden. In 1966 they released their debut album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, and sacked Katz. Two months later Anderson quit and was promptly replaced by Grace Slick, the privately educated daughter of an investment banker who had been singing with another San Francisco band, The Great Society. 

                                  

“After Bathing at Baxter’s, was an album in which the Airplane turned up the psychedelic dial with wandering songs, otherworldly lyrics, strange sound effects and a more improvisational style. At generation-defining events like the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 and Woodstock and the ill-fated Altamont Speedway Free Festival in 1969, the group embodied the look, the sound, the politics and the aspirations of the counterculture, specifically its San Francisco incarnation. 

The late 60’s saw the group reaching their peak, but by 1970 in-fighting was breaking out, and by 1971 both Dryden and Balin had left. In 1970 Kantner had signalled a possible new future for himself by embarking on a side project that led to a concept album, Blows Against the Empire, recorded with an ad hoc group of musicians he called Jefferson Starship and revealing his fascination with science fiction writers such as Arthur C Clarke and Robert Heinlein. 

When the Airplane folded, Kantner went on to record a pair of albums with Slick, who by then had become his partner, and with whom he had a daughter, China. Then he made Jefferson Starship into a full-time affair, and between 1974 and 1984 the group had five Top 20 US albums in succession, with 1975’s Red Octopus hitting No 1 and delivering the No 3 hit Miracles. 

Kantner quit after their 1984 album, Nuclear Furniture, declaring himself unhappy with the group’s too-commercial direction. After his departure and as a result of a lawsuit he filed, Jefferson Starship became plain Starship, a band loved and loathed for the song “We Built This City”, while Kantner went on to record a one-off album in 1986 with Casady and Balin as the KBC Band. In 1989 he was involved in a Jefferson Airplane reunion tour and album, and in 1992 he reignited Jefferson Starship. 

After re-forming Jefferson Starship with Mr. Balin in the early 1990s, Mr. Kantner toured often with the group, which evolved into a solo vehicle for him, with guest musicians coming and going. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. “Their heady psychedelia, combustible group dynamic and adventuresome live shows made them one of the defining bands of the era,” their entry on the Hall of Fame website reads.

On March 25, 2015, it was reported that Kantner had suffered a heart attack. Kantner returned to the group later on in the year, in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jefferson Airplane with special shows that also featured Grateful Dead tribute group Jazz is Dead. Kantner died in San Francisco at the age of 74 on January 28, 2016, from multiple organ failure and septic shock. Shortly after Kantner's death, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart called Kantner the band's backbone and said Kantner should have received the kind of credit that Slick, Casady and Kaukonen received. Coincidentally, he died on the same day as Airplane co-founder Signe Toly Anderson. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & The Guardian)