Guitar | b. 1947

Steve Khan was born Steven Harris Cahn in Los Angeles on April 28, 1947, the son of lyricist Sammy Cahn. He started on drums and piano before switching to guitar at nineteen after hearing Wes Montgomery's recordings, graduated from UCLA in music composition and theory in 1969, and moved to New York where he built a career as one of the most in-demand session guitarists of the 1970s, working with Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, the Brecker Brothers and Blood Sweat and Tears while contributing to Steely Dan's "Aja." Bobby Colomby and Bob James signed him to Columbia Records, and between 1977 and 1979 he released three fusion albums, "Tightrope," "The Blue Man" and "Arrows," all built around Michael and Randy Brecker, David Sanborn, Don Grolnick, Will Lee and Steve Gadd. Dropped by Columbia in 1980, he recorded "Evidence" (Novus), a solo acoustic guitar album centred on a nine-song Thelonious Monk medley that signalled a change of direction. The Eyewitness quartet that followed, with contrabassist Anthony Jackson, percussionist Manolo Badrena and drummer Steve Jordan, produced a more exploratory electric jazz that Japanese Trio Records documented across "Eyewitness" (1981) and "Modern Times" (1982). He has continued recording and performing across a long career, with subsequent work moving toward Latin jazz and post-bop. Khan remains active and is based in New York.