AUGUST 13, 1965 – In San Francisco, California, Jefferson Airplane made their live debut at the city’s Matrix Club, co-owned by lead singer Marty Balin. The photograph of the members of Jefferson Airplane that was featured on the front cover of their best-known album “Surrealistic Pillow” (1967) was taken inside the Matrix at 3138 Fillmore Street.
In 1962, 20-year old former Cincinnati native Marty Balin recorded pop singles for Challenge Records, neither of which were successful. Balin then joined a folk group called The Town Criers from 1963 to 1964. After the Beatles-led British invasion of 1964, Balin was inspired by the merging of folk with rock—spearheaded by the success of The Byrds and Simon & Garfunkel—and decided to form a group in 1965 that would play this hybrid style. With a group of investors, Balin purchased a former pizza parlor on Fillmore Street, which he transformed into The Matrix music club and began searching for members for his group while auditioning bands to perform at the venue. Marty had persuaded three limited partners to put up $3,000 apiece to finance the opening of The Matrix, giving them 75% ownership, while he retained 25% for creating and managing it.
Balin met folk musician Paul Kantner at another local club, The Drinking Gourd. Kantner, a native San Franciscan, had started out performing on the Bay Area folk circuit in the early 1960s, alongside fellow folkies Jerry Garcia, David Crosby and Janis Joplin. Kantner has cited folk groups like The Kingston Trio and The Weavers as strong early influences. He briefly moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1964 to work in a folk duo with future Airplane/Starship member David Freiberg (who subsequently joined Quicksilver Messenger Service).
Balin and Kantner then set about recruiting other musicians to form the house band at the Matrix. After hearing female vocalist Signe Toly Anderson at the Drinking Gourd, Balin invited her to be the group’s co-lead singer. Anderson sang with the band for a year and performed on their first album, departing in October 1966 after the birth of her first child.
Kantner next recruited an old friend, blues guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. Originally from Washington, D.C., Kaukonen had moved to California in the early 1960s and met Kantner while at Santa Clara University in 1962. Kaukonen was invited to jam with the new band and although initially reluctant to join he was won over after playing his guitar through a tape delay device that was part of the sound system used by Ken Kesey for his Acid Test parties. Drummer Jerry Peloquin and acoustic bassist Bob Harvey completed the original lineup.
The origin of the group’s name is often disputed, with some claiming “Jefferson airplane” is slang for a used paper match splint to hold a marijuana joint that has been smoked too short to hold without burning the fingers – an improvised roach clip. A popular conjecture suggests this was the origin of the band’s name, but band member Jorma Kaukonen has denied this and stated that the name was invented by his friend Steve Talbot as a parody of blues names such as Blind Lemon Jefferson. A 2007 press release quoted Kaukonen as saying: “I had this friend [Talbot] in Berkeley who came up with funny names for people,” explains Kaukonen. “His name for me was Blind Thomas Jefferson Airplane (for blues pioneer Blind Lemon Jefferson). When the guys were looking for band names and nobody could come up with something, I remember saying, ‘You want a silly band name? I got a silly band name for you!'”
The group made its first public appearance as Jefferson Airplane at the opening night of The Matrix on August 13, 1965. The band expanded from its folk roots, drawing inspiration from The Beatles, The Byrds and The Lovin’ Spoonful, and gradually developed a more pop-oriented electric sound.
A few weeks after the group was formed, Jerry Peloquin departed, in part because of his disdain for the others’ drug use. Although he was not a drummer, singer-guitarist Skip Spence (who later founded Moby Grape) was then invited to replace Peloquin. In October 1965, after the other members decided that Bob Harvey’s bass playing was not up to par, he was replaced by guitarist-bassist Jack Casady, an old friend of Kaukonen from Washington D.C. Casady played his first gig with the Airplane at a college concert in Berkeley, California, two weeks after he arrived in San Francisco.
The group’s performing skills improved rapidly and they soon gained a strong following in and around San Francisco, aided by reviews from veteran music journalist Ralph J. Gleason, the jazz critic of the San Francisco Chronicle who, after seeing them at the Matrix in late 1965, proclaimed them “one of the best bands ever.” Gleason’s support raised the band’s profile considerably, and within three months their manager Matthew Katz was fielding offers from recording companies, although they had yet to perform outside the Bay Area.
They would of course become signed to RCA and rise to great heights with a string of top ten hits, but not long after completing their first album, lead singer Signe Toly married and became a mother, she chose to leave the group and Grace Slick took over as the female lead to Balin’s male lead.
The Matrix was a favorite haunt of Kentucky-born gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson in the late 1960s and was also mentioned briefly in his book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” during a flashback scene. During this period, Thompson was a contributing editor for the then-new tabloid magazine, Rolling Stone, which was founded in San Francisco in 1967.