Steve Khan

Career[edit]

Steven Harris Cahn was born in Los Angeles.^[1] His father, lyricist Sammy Cahn, "loved to hear any and all versions of his songs".^[2] He took piano lessons as a child and played drums for the surf rock band the Chantays.^[2] The band's guitarist exposed him to the albums Tough Talk by The Crusaders and Movin' Wes by Wes Montgomery. In his late teens he quit the drums and started playing guitar.^[2] He was a member of the R&B band Friends of Distinction, recorded with keyboardist Phil Moore, then played on the album Bullitt by Wilton Felder ("one of my heroes"). Despite his father's advice to avoid a career in the music business, he graduated from UCLA with a degree in music composition and theory.^[2]


In the early 1970s, he performed in an acoustic guitar duo with Larry Coryell and was a member of the Brecker Brothers band.^[2] As a session musician, he appeared on albums by Ashford & Simpson, Rupert Holmes, Billy Joel, and Steely Dan.^[3] He was signed to Columbia Records through the efforts of Bobby Colomby and Bob James. On his first three albums Tightrope (1977), The Blue Man (1978), and Arrows (1979), he was trying "to single-handledly keep alive the sound of the original Brecker Brothers band."^[2] His next album was Evidence (1980), which contained an eighteen-minute medley of songs by Thelonious Monk.^[4]


He has also produced recordings for fellow guitarists Larry Coryell, Mike Stern, Biréli Lagrène, and Bill Connors, as well as pianist Eliane Elias.^[5]