Chaz Jankel facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chaz Jankel
Jankel before a gig with the Blockheads at Band on the Wall, 2016
Background information
Birth name	Charles Jeremy Jankel
Also known as	Chas Jankel
Born	(1952-04-16) 16 April 1952 (age 73) Stanmore, Middlesex, England
Origin	London, England
Genres	New wave blue-eyed soul disco funk R&B punk rock soul music
Occupation(s)	Musician songwriter arranger composer record producer
Instruments	Vocals guitar piano keyboards synthesizer organ percussion
Years active	1973–present
Labels	GM Stiff Polydor Demon Ronnie Harris A&M Virgin Tirk CJ

Charles Jeremy "Chaz" Jankel (born 16 April 1952) is an English musician and songwriter. For over 40 years, he has been making music. He became well-known in the late 1970s. This was when he played guitar and keyboards for the rock band Ian Dury and the Blockheads.

Chaz Jankel helped Ian Dury write some of the band's most famous songs. These include "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" and "Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3". Besides his work with the Blockheads, Jankel has also released nine solo albums. He has many credits as a performer and a songwriter.

Early Life and Music Beginnings

Charles Jeremy Jankel was born on 16 April 1952 in Stanmore, Middlesex. When he was 7, he started learning to play the Spanish guitar. He was inspired by the skiffle singer Lonnie Donegan. After that, he also began to study the piano.

Chaz went to a boarding school called Mill Hill School. There, he became a big fan of the American band Sly and the Family Stone. This band played rock, funk, and soul music. Chaz's love for this style later brought a lot of funk influence to the Blockheads' music. It also shaped his own solo music. While studying at Saint Martin's School of Art, he played with a folk rock band called Byzantium. This was from 1972 to 1973.

Music Career Highlights

In 1973, Chaz Jankel helped with a song called "Let's Go". It was on Long John Baldry's album Good to Be Alive. Then, he joined the folk rock band Jonathan Kelly's Outside. He worked on their only album, ...Waiting on You, released in 1974.

Jankel first started working with Ian Dury in the early 1970s. They were part of a band called Kilburn and the High Roads. He continued to work with Dury on the Blockheads' albums. This included the 1979 album Do It Yourself. After this, he left the band for a while.

In 1981, Jankel joined Dury again for his second solo album, Lord Upminster. This album included the popular US dance song "Spasticus Autisticus", which they wrote together.

Solo Success and Collaborations

After leaving the Blockheads, Chaz Jankel started his own solo career. He released four albums with A&M. These included his first album, Chas Jankel (1980), and Chasanova (1981). The album Chasanova was also known as Questionnaire. Ian Dury wrote many of the song lyrics for this album. Two members of the Blockheads, bassist Norman Watt-Roy and drummer Charlie Charles, also played on it.

Chasanova featured the US dance hit "Glad to Know You". This song was one of those with lyrics by Ian Dury. Its title track also had a music video shown on MTV. In 1981, Quincy Jones had a UK hit song with his version of Jankel's "Ai No Corrida". It reached number 14 in April that year. Other artists like the Nylons and Laura More with Uniting Nations also covered this song. In 2005, the Uniting Nations' version reached number 18 in the UK.

Jankel performing live with the Blockheads at The Water Rats, 2011

In 1982, Jankel's songs "Glad to Know You", "3,000,000 Synths", and "Ai No Corrida" all hit number 1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. His song "Number One" also became a number 1 hit in French clubs. It was used in the 1985 movie Real Genius. He then released more albums: Chazablanca in 1983 and Looking at You in 1985. In 1985, the music boss at A&M, Jerry Moss, decided not to release his fifth album. This ended his time recording with that label.

Return to the Blockheads and Film Music

After his parents passed away, Chaz Jankel moved to the US in 1988. He lived there for several years. Later, he returned to the UK to rejoin the Blockheads. He worked with Ian Dury on their last two albums together: Mr. Love Pants (1998) and Ten More Turnips from the Tip (2000). On the later album, Chaz sang the main vocals on the song "I Could Lie". After Ian Dury's death in 2000, Jankel kept writing and performing with the Blockheads. Derek Hussey, who was Dury's friend, took his place.

Chaz Jankel has also written music for several films. These include DOA (1988), which his sister Annabel Jankel helped direct. He also composed music for K2 (1991). Jankel wrote most of the music for the 2010 movie about Ian Dury's life. In this movie, actor Tom Hughes played Chaz. Jankel was nominated for a BAFTA award for the film's music.

In 2010, Jankel released My Occupation – The Music of Chaz Jankel. This was an album with a collection of his songs. It included "Ai No Corrida", "Glad to Know You", and "You're My Occupation". It also had a new song called "Get Myself Together". Since 2001, Chaz Jankel has released music on his own record label, CJ Records. In 2016, he recorded a song with Cherry Cameron.

Personal Life

In September 1988, Chaz Jankel moved to Venice, Los Angeles. He lived there with his Swedish girlfriend, Catharina Hemberg. They got married on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Chaz and Catharina have a son named Tao Hemberg Jankel. He was born in Hollywood in 1990. Tao now lives and works in Oslo, Norway, and is a popular DJ. When Tao was very young, his parents divorced, and his mother moved back to Sweden.

In 1992, Jankel moved back to the UK. There, he met artist Elaine O'Halloran. They met on the set of the film The Rachel Papers (1989), where she helped edit. The couple got married and have a son, Lewis Shay Jankel, born in 1993. Lewis is also a DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter. He uses the artist name Shift K3Y.

Chaz's sister, Annabel Jankel, is a film and television director. In 2018, she directed the British film Tell It to the Bees. Chaz wrote a piano piece called "Unresolved" which is in the movie's soundtrack.

Discography

Solo albums

Singles