HISTORY: PAUL PENA - JET AIRLINER, Live on Conan O'Brien

Steve Miller's 1977 hit song *Jet Airliner* was written by gifted guitarist and singer-songwriter Paul Pena, who recorded 2 albums in the early 70s, with only the first seeing release at the time. In this video, we watch Paul's only known network television appearance, performing "Jet Airliner" on June 8, 2001 on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, with Max Weinberg on drums and Jimmy Vivino on rhythm guitar. We also discuss some of Paul's history, and our own personal history with his first album.

Paul's second album, New Train, contains his version of Jet Airliner. It was finally release in 2000.

Paul Pena was born on January 26, 1950 in Hyannis, MA, the oldest child of Jack and Virginia Pena. His grandparents came from the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa. He was born with congenital glaucoma. When he was five, he began school at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown (a suburb of Boston). He graduated in 1967 and then attended Clark University in Worcester, MA.

As a young child, Paul soon showed his talent for music. His mother heard him picking out melodies and chords on a baby grand piano that had been found in the town dump and brought home, 'as a toy that a blind child might enjoy.' He developed 'perfect pitch.' Soon Paul was studying the piano, guitar, upright bass, violin and 'a little trumpet.' He played and sang popular jazz and Cape Verdian ballads with his father, a professional jazz musician, and also sang in his school choruses. Paul appeared in a talent show, and while in college, performed in coffeehouses in Worcester.

In 1969, Paul played in the Newport Folk Festival 'in the Contemporary Composer's Workshop with such people as James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Kris Kristofferson.' In 1971, Paul moved to San Francisco and recorded his first marketed record for Capital Records, which was released in 1973.

In his musical career Paul played with many of the blues greats, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Mississippi Fred McDowell, 'Big Bones,' and T. Bone Walker. His song, 'Jet Airliner,' recorded by the Steve Miller Band, was a hit in the 1970s. Another album, recorded by Bearsville Records, was never released. It is scheduled to be released in the year 2000. To find out more about this album click here.

During this period Paul's wife, Babe, suffered kidney failure. Paul gave up his musical career at that point in order to take care of her. She died in 1991. He suffered greatly from her loss.

Paul first heard a fragment of harmonic singing on a shortwave Radio Moscow broadcast on December 29, 1984 and he was so struck by it, he spent almost eight years trying to track down its source. In 1991 he was finally able to locate a recording of Tuvan music and taught himself the vocal techniques known as 'Khoomei, Sygyt, and Kargyraa'. In addition, he learned a good bit of the Tuvan language using English-Russian and Russian-Tuvan dictionaries and an obsolete 'Opticon' scanning device which translates text into sensations. In 1993, Paul attended a concert sponsored by the Friends of Tuva organization and met Kongar-ol Ondar after the performance. Paul gave Kongar-ol an impromptu demonstration--and astonished him with his talent and mastery of traditional Tuvan singing. The two men formed a strong friendship along with their musical collaboration.

In 1995, Kongar-ol invited Paul to sing at the second international Khoomei Symposium and contest, held in Tuva's capital city, Kyzyl. Ralph Leighton and the "Friends of Tuva" sponsored his trip. Paul took first place in the Kargyraa division of the contest and became known as 'Earthquake' for his amazingly deep voice. He also won the 'audience favorite' award. Filmmakers Adrian and Roko Belic accompanied Paul to Tuva to film the contest and his travels through Tuva, guided by Kongar-ol. Paul and Kongar-ol have also recorded a compact disc called Genghis Blues, which combines American blues singing, Cape Verdian 'morna,' and Tuvan Khoomei.

Since the release of the film, Genghis Blues, and the CD Sountrack , Paul was named 'San Francisco's Tuvan Blues Ambassador' and July 11, 1999 was declared 'Paul Pena Day' by the mayor. Paul has also been diagnosed with a pancreatic illness. He is on the long road to recovery.

[zeusapollo]

The movie about his throat singing trip is epic. Dude is awesome

[attygarland]

As to why the album was roadblocked, the story I heard was that Paul make the mistake (and I don't think it was intentional, if true) in signing with two different producers or agents, or some such, around the time the album was being made. B/c they couldn't agree which one of them had the exclusive rights to market the album, it was a "Mexican stand off", and Paul, rather than get caught up in the controversy, just decided to let the album drop at the time. This is the first time I heard that he blocked the album just b/c he didn't care for the quality of the audio. First, I don't know that an artist (particularly one new to the scene) has that power under their musical contract. Secondly, if that were the case, why didn't they just agree to re-record it (or re-mix it?) for better quality? That would seem to be the sensible thing to do, and everybody would win with that being done.

[newwavepop]

There is so much to say here, i was born in 72 and growing up i loved 50s music and i loved 60s music and i loved 80s music which was new music at the time but i was never that big on 70s music and The Eagles and Steve Miller particularly i could not stand. and so for decades i sort of resented Steve Millers version of this song having no idea it was a cover and no idea what the hell he was saying "there goes Venus de Milo?" is just one of the MANY things i thought he was saying and the reason i hated this particular song so much was just its VONSTANT presence on the classic rock stations i listened to at work.
cut to YEARS later and the first time i ever heard of Paul Pena was the "Genghis Blues doc coming out, i ALWAYS checked out weird music docs and i instantly fell in love with Paul. he was just so kind and so gentle and it was heartbreaking hearing about the things that happened to him that stopped his career from ever really happening as well as all of his health problems. i bought the "New Train" album when it finally came out and his songs have just such an upbeat happy groove to them, i never knew i could love a song so much that i had hated so much for so long. his version of "Jet Airliner" is just so soulful and exuberant, i ma just so glad he got to enjoy some of the success that he deserved and go to know how much some people loved his music before he passed. and i love the Conan appearance have watched it many times.

[attygarland]

Good point about the pronunciation of Paul's last name. "PEH-nuh" = Spanish. "PEE-nuh" = Portuguese, which is one of the main languages - if not the mainstream language - of the Cape Verde Islands. Also, in Spanish, there is usually a tilde over the "n" in the name, making it pronounced "PEH-nyuh" .. For it to be pronounced "PEE-nuyh" in Portuguese, FWIW, it would be spelled "Penha". The (last name) of "Pina" in Spanish (with a tilde over the n to be pronounced "PEE-nyah") means "pineapple" as a common noun.

[mitoelias]

Thanks for going on about Paul Pena's unexplored world, guys. I'm from Cape Verde and am a huge Paul fan. Paul would have been another Stevie Wonder, in my opinion, if he hadn't been put on the back burner.

[luisvillar]

I think I have watched the Conan video dozens of times, love it.

[cabinlife]

Great video you guys! I’ve just told one of my young 20 something employees about Paul’s New Train album and tried to explain how I’ve heard it over 20 years ago and I hope he heeds the advice to listen because every now and then I’ll find the album (only on YouTube for what I can tell) and give a listen in my car during my commute and remember when I was you listening to this awesome album.

[clifton]

It's big ol'jed had a lighter for me! So good.

[nancystanton]

Lots of information - good Conan catch

[clifton]

Paul's original lyrics are gangsta af, as the kids say.

[MayorMcCheese]

I've been trying for years to get in touch with someone in control of his estate. Please let me know if you guys have any contacts to his family.

[ChunkeyMonkey]

pauls version is much better than steves