Living legend Jorma Kaukonen, the guitarist from Jefferson Airplane and one half of the original Hot Tuna (alongside bassist Jack Casady), arrived in Israel in December 2010 for a special concert of Hot Tuna in Tel aviv, right on the eve of Jorma's 70th birthday!
They landed on Wednesday, December 22, and upon their arrival, there was a quick "meet and greet" at a local used record store in downtown Tel Aviv, where I first met Jorma, his sweet wife Vanessa, and legendary bassist Jack Casady.
That night, Hot Tuna - Jorma and Jack, performed in Tel Aviv to a full house, and at midnight as it turned into Thursday December 23rd, Jorma marked his 70th birthday on stage, and we all cheered with him.
...A day or two later, there was a special get together with Jorma as featured guest at the Jaffa home of one of the promoters of the show - Yamit Hagar, and a number of musicians and friends in the community were invited to participate in an informal jam. A number of us were sitting in a circle around the small room, with Jorma at the center, four or five of us holding guitars and following closely as Jorma played.

That's me in the foreground - under the blurry gray cap.
At one point, Jorma began playing the Hesitation Blues, a song I have been performing on stage for decades. He noticed that I was finger-picking the accompaniment in the style of Rev. Gary Davis and in perfect time with him, so he turned to me and said: "Take it, Big Dog!", and I took a couple of verses, trying not to crack up laughing from his comment.













