Offbeat
Collaborating with Kerouac
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- $69.99
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- $69.99
Publisher Description
David Amram has been described as "the Renaissance man of American Music." His musical career has spanned participating with Jack Kerouac in the original jazz-poetry reading in 1957 in Greenwich Village to being honored as the first Composer-in-Residence for the New York Philharmonic and to playing in Farm Aid concerts. He's performed with an incredible variety of musical greats, such as Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Willie Nelson, and and Tito Puente, and he continues to compose and tour nationally. Now available in paperback, following the 50th anniversary of the publication of Kerouac's classic On The Road, Offbeat is the rollicking story of this legendary musician and his adventures with his close friend Jack Kerouac. Amram and Kerouac shared a relationship based on creativity, respect, and fun, and Offbeat offers the reader a full share of each. This wonderful memoir takes the reader from the coffee houses of New York to the San Francisco Opera House and into the making of the now-classic film Pull My Daisy. Offbeat is Amram's energetic and heartfelt account of Kerouac and the creative community of artists-including Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Langston Hughes, and Neal and Carolyn Cassady-that courageously explored their creative potential and, in doing so, changed American culture forever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the late 1950s, musician and composer Amram (Vibrations) pulled frequent all-nighters with Jack Kerouac and pals. The artists drank Thunderbird, smoked pot and recited spontaneous poems while Amram belted his French horn. In 1957, Amram and Kerouac went public with the act at a small East Village gallery; two years later, they documented their unique teamwork in the short film Pull My Daisy. They never worked together again: Kerouac moved with his mother to Florida, where he became increasingly reclusive and enfeebled by alcohol, and Amram went on to compose more than 100 orchestral and chamber pieces and wrote scores for such films as The Manchurian Candidate. In this memoir, the author hopes to clear up "decades of misinformation and mythology" about Kerouac and many of the other poets, painters and artists of the so-called Beat movement (a label he vehemently rejects). Unfortunately, the characters Amram renders come off as unreal as the stereotypes he wishes to destroy. Readers interested in Kerouac should look elsewhere. Memory Babe: A Cultural Biography of Jack Kerouac by Gerald Nicosia is the most comprehensive biography. For a more personal account, read former Kerouac lover Joyce Johnson's memoir Minor Characters. Photos not seen by PW.
