Lester Young's Birthday

[Lester Young - "Prez" - (1909-1959)]

August 27 - It's Lester Young's birthday today 

Henry Ferrini's upcoming  film biography is our focus. More on that essential documentary here.

Drummer Tootie Heath recalls Lester's lingo, Wayne Shorter recalls apprenticeship with Prez, George Wein recalls sitting-in, Monica Getz recalls travelling on the bus, David Amram, in 2009, speaking of the exuberance of Lester Young…



As Ralph J Gleason memorably put it, "If you don't know who Pres was, you've missed a great part of America".

Here's the original "Lester Leaps In" with Count Basie from 1939 




Allen, in 1968, to interviewer Michael Aldrich:  "Lester Young was what I was thinking about.."Howl" is all "Lester Leaps In"




Here's more (an NPR report) from the 2009 centennial 



Francois Postif's legendary 1959 interview may be seen here, 
but, more importantly, must be heard here.



August 27-29, WKCR's annual Lester Young and Charlie Parker birthday broadcasts

Jack Kerouac's Birthday

                                         
                                                                                                             


[Jack Kerouac - 1942 Naval Reserve photograph - courtesy The Archive - Sketches on Kerouac]



[Jack Kerouac - Staten Island Ferry Dock, New York City 1953 (Photo c. Allen Ginsberg Estate)

Jack Kerouac's birthday today! - Happy Birthday, Jack! - Had he lived, he would have been (strange vision!) 91 years old. 

Here are some of our more choice Jack Kerouac posts from the Allen Ginsberg Project: 

Here's Allen reading from Dharma Bums, here's Kerouac reading from American Haiku (for more vintage Kerouac recordings, check out these resources here). Here and here are the (video) record of the first Kerouac conference (in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1973), here's a little interesting addenda.

Two essential Kerouac movies have returned, temporarily, to You Tube - How long will they be up? - it's anybody's guess, but, right now, you can access them here and here. (notes/transcription from John Antonelli's 1985 documentary may be found here)

Speaking of essential footage, there is, of course, this - and this.

Herménégilde Chiasson looks at the French connection (as does Joyce Johnson).

Henry Ferrini looks at Kerouac in Lowell  (see also this past weekend's posting)

Here are four postings on the Ginsberg-Kerouac Letters - here, here, here and here.

Here are observations on Mexico City Blues, and, more recently, the Collected Poems

Our 2010 birthday salute featured Jack's extraordinary phantom baseball imagination, (and), in 2012, a portfolio of Allen's photos of his sweet face.

[Jack Kerouac's proposed design for a paperback cover for his novel, On The Road. (1952)]



[Jack Kerouac interviewed by Fernand Seguin, 1967, Radio-Canada (Montreal) tv]

Charles Olson (1910-1970)

[Charles Olson, "Poet Maximus elder", during the Vancouver Poetry Conference, July 1963 c. The Allen Ginsberg Estate]

January 10 - 42 years ago today - Charles Olson died. We've linked already to Henry Ferrini's documentary movie, Polis Is This. His (Olson's) EPC page (out of the University of Buffalo) may be accessed here. His PennSound (University of Pennsylvania) audio recordings page may be accessed here. Storrs (University of Connecticut) is, of course, the singular repository of his archives.

Allen and he first met in Harvard in 1959, but the crucial first conjunction, perhaps, was the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference (at which the above shots were taken). Audio of Allen's reading at that Conference can be heard here and here, Olson's here and here. There are also a number of fascinating panel discussions, featuring not only Olson and Ginsberg but also Robert Duncan and Robert Creeley, Philip Whalen, Denise Levertov, and others.

The 1970 Paris Review interview with Gerard Malanga (at least the version published by the magazine) may be read here.

Henry Ferrini - Kerouac and Olson

Henry Ferrini's impressionistic evocative Lowell Blues (2000) is a honeyed melancholic visual poem (somewhat imposed upon in this version by Journeyman Pictures intrusive logo!), with home-town boy Jack Kerouac's words always at the center, featuring Lee Konitz's mournful alto sax, and distinctive readings of Kerouac's distinctive prose, by such distinctive voices as (those clearly belonging to) Robert Creeley, Gregory Corso, Carolyn Cassady, Johnny Depp, David Amram.. We even catch isolated fragments of Kerouac himself.

Henry's most recent (2007) movie about the great poet-historian Charles Olson and his home town, the fishing port of Gloucester, Massachusetts, can be viewed, in its entirety, here (Tom Cheetham has a useful collection of Olson resources, should, after this, you want to look a little deeper into Olson - And to look deeper into Kerouac? - well, the folks at Kerouac.com seem to know a fair deal).

Lowell Celebrates Kerouac's 88th Birthday, March 11-13

We're fast approaching Jack's 88th birthday & once again the city of Lowell is pulling out all the stops. Check their site for event lineups which include a screening of Henry Ferrini's classic Lowell Blues, and performances by David Amram, and many others >>