Jazz Cat, Right on Time, Every Time

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)

Most of the notables involved in what may have been the first-ever jazz-poetry reading of the so-called Beat Generation have passed on into legend. Of those presenting at that event, at the Brata Art Gallery on East 10th Street in Manhattan in October 1957, the sole survivor is the “jazz” cat David Amram, a French horn virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist, and composer.

The now-departed poets were Amram’s longtime buddy and notorious novelist Jack Kerouac, San Francisco native Philip Lamantia, and Lamantia’s friend Howard Hart. Amram had already studied with Gunther Schuller and gained notice as an undeclared proponent of the Third Wave, playing in classical and jazz arenas and composing for theater and film. He continued writing in those contexts, and in 1966 was chosen by Leonard Bernstein as the New York Philharmonic’s first composer in residence. Over the next four decades, he expanded into orchestral and operatic settings, as well as work for soloists and small ensembles, and he recorded, conducted, and performed as an instrumentalist.

On Sept. 26, Amram will celebrate the 54th anniversary of the Brata Gallery collaboration with readings and music at the Beat Museum in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. He’ll then be on the road toward a week’s stay in San Jose, where the Symphony Silicon Valley will perform two of his compositions, with Amram as featured soloist, on October 1 and 2. The perpetually young and restless 81-year-old spoke with SFCV from his home near the Hudson River, in New York State.

(continua sul San Francisco Classical Voice)