The atmosphere was wide open in those circles that we traveled in.
From David Amram
In a jazz atmosphere, the audience members were so quiet and respectful of the musicians that you felt you were almost part of a meeting at a church or a temple, where everyone was completely in tune with the sermon and what the whole event was about.
Esquire, in a July, 1957 issue, has a photograph of me playing the French horn at the Five Spot.
The Upper Bohemia people wore tuxedos in an art gallery, and Lower Bohemia was all of us.
We met with the poet Frank O'Hara, who was a link between Upper and Lower Bohemia, and who worked at the Museum of Modern Art, where we had hoped to do the readings.
When you are accompanying someone, you are listening to them the way you listen to a Bach Chorale, where four parts are going on at the same time, all of which are gorgeous melodies, all being played simultaneously.
In symphonic music, when you are conducting, you do the same thing. You are feeling the whole orchestra, thinking ahead so you can prepare for a change.
That is what I did with Jack, and that's why he liked to do the readings with me because he knew I was there for him, and for our ability to blend the poetry and the music.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti had a tremendous education as an artist and also an enormous knowledge of literarture.
Allen Ginsberg was a world authority on the writing of William Blake, and had an incredible knowledge of classic literature and world politics.
4 perspectives
3 perspectives
2 perspectives
1 perspectives