Off Beat: Collaborating With Kerouac

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. (Mar.)Forecast: As with most things Kerouackian, this book is sure to attract the many, still cultish, fans.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Following the reissue of his earlier biography, Vibrations, this engaging memoir focuses on American composer Amram's lifelong friendship with Jack Kerouac, recounting their early meetings in Greenwich Village, collaborations on jazz-poetry readings at New York City venues like the Brata Gallery and the Circle in the Square Theater, and legendary work on Robert Frank's 1959 film Pull My Daisy. Amram has little use for the naysaying critics who were quick to label his friends "beatniks" and "know-nothing bohemians." His memoir, an upbeat celebration of the spirit that inspired the poetry of Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, also documents the continuing influence and growing recognition of the Beat movement, as Amram discusses his current participation in various recording projects and academic conferences related to Kerouac and the Beat generation. Amram's distinctive voice is a refreshing antidote to much of the hype surrounding the Beats. Recommended for academic and public libraries. William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Celebrated composer, jazz musician, and lover of literature Amram remembers his friend Jack Kerouac as a visionary artist blessed with a musician's ear and astonishing improvisational skills, but with too sensitive a soul to weather the vicissitudes first of fame, then of neglect. Amram's remarkably vivid and detailed chronicle of the last dozen years of Kerouac's life offers many riveting moments, including a hilarious account of the making of the film Pull My Daisy and a surreal bar scene in which he and Kerouac encounter a mob sporting brand-new "beatnik" duds, inducing Kerouac to quip, "It's just like Catholic school, everyone's in uniform." The trivialization of Kerouac's work was no laughing matter, however: it stoked his fatal despair. Happily, Amram's uniquely intimate, energetic tribute ends on a high note with a recap of the long-awaited critical recognition of the true splendor and spirituality of Kerouac's oeuvre. Amram's offhanded tallying of his own phenomenal accomplishments adds sparkle to this invaluable work of "live" cultural history, which is every bit as radiant as his enduringly popular first memoir, Vibrations (1968). Donna Seaman
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