Jorma Kaukonen Talks About His DC Roots

Jorma Kaukonen, the renowned guitarist for Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, is closely associated with San Francisco’s music scene. But Kaukonen actually grew up in Chevy Chase DC, across the street from Lafayette Elementary. Both he and fellow Airplane and Hot Tuna member Jack Casady—who lived nearby—attended Alice Deal and Woodrow Wilson (now Jackson-Reed), and the duo got their professional start here, playing covers in local nightclubs.

Kaukonen was recently back in town for a concert at the Warner Theatre, a big celebration of his 85th birthday that included Casady. It seemed like a good moment to learn more about his somewhat surprising roots in upper Northwest DC, so we called him up to do a bit of reminiscing.

Kaukonen’s dad was an Army linguist on General Douglas MacArthur’s sta