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Biography:
Paul Kantner is a singer/songwriter and rhythm guitarist who was a founding member of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship. Kantner was the first person approached by singer Marty Balin about putting together a folk-rock group in the mid-'60s in the San Francisco Bay area. Jefferson Airplane was among the first and the most commercially successful of the San Francisco acid rock psychedelic groups of the '60s. The group began to fragment at the end of the decade, and Kantner released a solo album, Blows Against the Empire, in 1970. It was followed by a duo album with his wife, Airplane lead singer Grace Slick, Sunfighter, in 1971, and a trio album, Baron Vol Tollbooth && the Chrome Nun, with Slick and David Freiberg (who had replaced Balin in the Airplane) in 1973. Kantner and Slick reorganized the Airplane under the name Jefferson Starship in 1974. Kantner released a second solo album, Planet Earth Rock 'N' Roll Orchestra, in 1983, and left Jefferson Starship in 1984, after which the band's name was truncated to Starship. Kantner then launched the KBC Band. In 1989, he was a member of a re-formed version of Jefferson Airplane. In the '90s, he toured with a new edition of Jefferson Starship. William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide