Pinterest fail? I spotted this Loaded Cauliflower “Mash” Bake on Pinterest, and it looked so yummy! It’s kind of a “skinny” version of loaded mashed potatoes. Not necessarily “great” for bikini season but better than potatoes would be! As a vegetarian, I had to swap out a few ingredients. Instead of bacon, I used some sort of green pepper type thing that my mind is currently blanking on the name of. It tasted okay but wasn’t quite as photogenic. Oh well, a starving artist has to eat!
Stephanie Nikolopoulos 
Dear Stephanie
Can i order three plates of Cauliflower Mash??
Sounds GOOD!!
I am going like the proverbial nut-case and only wish that North Beach California was closer to Manhattan so the you could come out and read from your book.
There is a big get-together in San Francisco at the Beat Museum and and since i am getting the trip paid for and getting a little taste as well, i am going, with the hopes of sharing some information about Jack, Charlie Parker, Dizzy, Monk, Bela Bartok, Stravinsky, Bernstein, Joan Mitchell,Franz Kline, deKoonig, Carson McCullers, Dylan Thomas, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Tito Puente, Billie Holiday,Patsy Kline, Willie Nelson, Odetta, the Robert Frank, Joyce Johnson,Vine de Loria Jr and so many of the people who take a back seat or NO SEAT to the franchized version of “BEAT” era , all of wghom Jack knew or appreciated in passing and along with an army of other people, gave us inspiration and HIGH STANDARDS to go for, as opposed to the tabloid-Kardashian Sisyters version of what and who we were.
My hope is that at least one young person or older person who loves Jack’s book will hear and see someone speaking about him that has to do with something besides the shlock Lower=Slobbovian version of what we were supposed to represent
Since you and Paul wrote a whole book about the subject, you know about this already!!
I’ll be coming in June 26 LATE at night after doing an early afternoon workshop/concert at Lincoln Center and then hopping on a plane
My two main events that are scheduled are…..
Saturday Night June 27
9:00 pm Collaborating with Kerouac Live Musical Performance with Storytelling David Amram Since Kerouac and Amram’s 1st public jazz/poetry readings ever presented in NYC in 1957, the spirit of their 12 years of collaboration and friendship has continued up to the present time. Amram will share stories and music from the era of the 50s, and his work with today’s new generation of artists from around the world who share the same open-ended spirit of collaboration that Kerouac and Amram did. Other speakers from earlier in the day will read highlights of Jack’s work with Amram’s music. Amram will also perform classics of Jazz, Latin, Native American, and global music. Fort Mason Center
Sunday June 28th
10 a.m.
This is The Beat Generation with Jerry Cimino & David Amram Storytelling, Poetry & Jazz Jerry Cimino with David Amram The Story of The Beat Generation, how they met, lived, loved and wrote along with who they influenced and how they changed the world. Photos, stories, readings and jazz. Fort Mason Center10:00-11:30 – $15
12 noon to 130 p.m. Spontaneous Commotion: Inside the chaotic making of Pull My Daisy Movie and Live Performance David Amram David Amram hosts a screening and shares stories of the three weeks of crazy carousing and merry-making that became the classic Beat silent film “Pull My Daisy” filmed and directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie. Kerouac free-styled the spontaneous narration and Amram composed the score as well as the title song with lyrics by Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg. The cast included Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Peter Orlovsky, artists Larry Rivers and Alice Neal, French actress Delphine Seyrig and Amram himself playing Mezz McGillicuddy, the deranged french hornist.Amram will also perform a scat version of the song “Pull My Daisy” and answer questions from attendees. Fort Mason Center12:00-1:30 – $15
I will be doing a lot of other things as well, but these are the main ones.
My schedule is crazier than ever and with my upcoming 85th birthday this coming Nov 17, there are NINE events so far, from September through December already planned, in addition to two orchestral pieces i am composing as well as working on my fourth book.
This Wednesday i am receiving an Honorary Phd (Doctor of the Arts) from Brooklyn College and also nave been asked to be their commencement speaker.
Here is my address to the class of 2015
And years later, after a recording was finally made, great review of THIS LAND: Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie
which came out on a CD.
FacebookTwitterYouTubeSpotify NEWS REVIEWS FEATURES PHOTOS CALENDAR MERCH CONTESTS ADVERTISE ALBUM REVIEWS David Amram – This Land Album Reviews | April 23rd, 2015
Artist: David Amram Album: This Land Label: Newport Classics Release Date: 02/23/2015 75
BUY DIGITAL BUY PHYSICAL At 84, David Amram still inspires and marvels at our potential and possibilities. And though he characteristically would pooh-pooh such platitudes, he stands beyond the Beats, Bop, The Beatles, Bernstein, and Beyonce as one of the true social, musical, and cultural ambassadors still in our midst.
Since striking an enduring friendship with Guthrie in 1956, Amram has sought to create a wider, more cinematic work (his soundtracks include The Manchurian Candidate, Splendor In The Grass, Pull My Daisy) based upon Woody’s most beloved song “This Land Is Your Land.” Nearly sixty years on, with the blessing and additional impetus of Nora Guthrie (Woody’s daughter and curator of his vast archives) This Land: Symphonic Variations On a Song by Woody Guthrie comes to vivid fruition.
Like Charlie Mingus (with whom he played French horn), Amram has never shied away from incorporating the music of the world at large into his compositions. So, as he conducts the widely acclaimed Colorado Symphony Orchestra, This Land sweeps us up from an Okemah, OK Saturday night stomp on soothing and roiling percussion, Celtic flare, Latin spice, Mexican dance, polkas, crescendos, bright brass fanfares and Appalachian melodies, landing, as Woody did, in the multi-ethnic hustle, hymns, and rhythms of downtown New York.
– Mike Jurkovic
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I am looking forward to coming back to the Bay Area again!!
i always enjoy your blogs and it is wonderful that you support other authors as well! I send cheers as always and all wishes for you for contintued energy and joy with everything you do!!!
David (promising young composer) amramdavid@aol.com http://www.davidamram.com home 845.528.4305 cell 914.299.3497 (New Address) 28 Hammond Plaza Beacon, NY 12508
Best YouTube selections http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DE566F6F01A2403A
http://www.twitter.com/David_Amram_
URL for trailer of the film “David Amram: The First 80 Years” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5v6MeanQ28
Link for viewing the film “David Amram: The First 80 Years” https://vimeo.com/ondemand/amram
Dear Paul
I REALLY enjoyed your article, which appeared on-line.
Terrific and really interesting and informative
i am c.c. ing it to your collaborator Stephanie, in case she hasn’t seen it yet.
Just back from San Francisco at what was called a “Beat Shindig” (what a title!!!) which was held in San Francisco. created by Jerry Cimino and his staff of Beat Museum followers.
It was NOT the high I.Q. event of the Year but it was fun and mostly free of the usual insanity which often occurs, as you so well know!!.
The Grateful Dead were having a huge farewell event the same weekend, so a lot of weekend nut cases went there and almost everyone who came to the event were actually INTERESTED in what it was about and some of the people had actually READ some of Jack’s books as their basis for seeking out further knowledge.
I told many of the younger attendees in addition to checking out the music of Bird, Diz and Monk, as well as the environments they came from, they should all READ the books of Jack and others of the era, and also realize that we had Picasso, Stravinsky, Carson McCullers, Whitman, Dostoyevsky, Langston Hughes, and 100s of really terrific artists of ALL genres to look up to, as well as the community of artists, painters, poets, composers, jazz players, actors and playwrights, dancers, singers, novelists and super-hip bartenders, waitresses and everyday people, all of whom were looking beyond what Henry Miller’s book described in his classic ”The Air Conditioned Nightmare” and how reading it helped us all to search for a better world.
This energy and thirst for knowledge was a precious gift for all of us to share, and gave us high standards to aspire to.
Today, this spirit still remains ALIVE and those ideals of enduring value are ones that we have to pass on to the younger cats (and kitties).
Some of the attendees at the San Francisco gathering were shocked that i didn’t look or act like Mr LowerSlobbovian or the cliched stereotypical Mr Groovy Stone-o-vision, the whining victim of the unjust adult world OR behave like a disillusioned old prima donna or Lester the Molester blame-ologist
I told them that when not in the occasional party mode, most of us were (and still are today) ARD WORKERS and that if they were disappointed that I wasn’t sleazy enough, they could watch reality tv to satisfy that desire to wallow in morbidity.
It was fun being there and i tried my best to be a good ambassador for those whose work and lives we all still love and admire!!
I saw crazy Chris Felver the photographer and film maker, and Herb Gold, now 90 and still writing every day. I also saw David Meltzer.
NOW I am back from a whirlwind week, and had so much fun that instead of being wiped out, i feel ENERGIZED!!
Here were the three main events that I did in San Francisco.
Saturday Night June 27
9:00 pm Collaborating with Kerouac Live Musical Performance with Storytelling David Amram Since Kerouac and Amram’s 1st public jazz/poetry readings ever presented in NYC in 1957, the spirit of their 12 years of collaboration and friendship has continued up to the present time. Amram will share stories and music from the era of the 50s, and his work with today’s new generation of artists from around the world who share the same open-ended spirit of collaboration that Kerouac and Amram did. Other speakers from earlier in the day will read highlights of Jack’s work with Amram’s music. Amram will also perform classics of Jazz, Latin, Native American, and global music. Fort Mason Center
Sunday June 28th
10 a.m.
The Beat Generation with Jerry Cimino & David Amram noon-130pm Storytelling, Poetry & Jazz (I skipped the gossip and tried to share the Beauty Part)
. Spontaneous Commotion: Inside the chaotic making of Pull My Daisy Movie and Live Performance David Amram David Amram hosts a screening and shares stories of the three weeks of crazy carousing and merry-making that became the classic Beat silent film “Pull My Daisy” filmed by Robert Frank and directed by Alfred Leslie. Kerouac free-styled the spontaneous narration and Amram composed the score as well as the title song with lyrics by Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg. The cast included Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Peter Orlovsky, artists Larry Rivers and Alice Neal, French actress Delphine Seyrig and Amram himself playing Mezz McGillicuddy, the deranged french hornist. Amram will also perform a scat version of the song “Pull My Daisy” and answer questions from attendees. Fort Mason Center 12:00-1:30 – $15
It was great being back in the Bay area again.
Now i am back home after spending three days as the composer in residence, working with 15 young conductors at the annual Conductors Workshop at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.
They each conducted my composition THIS LAND: Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie. and at the end of the three days, they had me conduct the piece myself. So after mucho tempo on that endless road, I am back in the saddle here in Beacon NY cranking it out, and will have some free time this summer to work on my new book and two new orchestral pieces,between all gigs here and in Europe.
One of the recent highlights of this year’ crazy schedule was a return to Brooklyn College where I first visited back in 1958 when Jack and I went to give our last public jazz/poetry reading in New York. (Joyce wrote about in “Minor Characters”)
Now, fifty five years later, May 27th of 2015 , I was invited back to Brooklyn College to receive an Honorary Doctorate of the Arts (my 7th one!) and was chosen to write and deliver the commencement address to the class of 2015. I wish that Jack could have been there too! Rather than my customary free-styling for my talk, I wrote it out!!
When I went to Brooklyn to participate in the graduation ceremonies, Brooklyn College put me up at the NuHotel on Smith Street, a fancy new boutique-style model, emblematic of the Hippification-Yuppification of this part of Cobble Hill in what is now trendy Brooklyn.
This old neighborhood of Cobble Hill is now a truly perfect model of gentrification on the march.
While retaining the highlights of urban neighborhood funk-lore of yesterday, this swanky new hotel is just a few feet from the Brooklyn House of Detention directly across the street, and next door to the Spartan Bail Bonds office. Both of these buildings are just few feet from the elegant entrance and lobby of the NuHotel, where you can see well heeled patrons sipping Cafe Lattes, many of whom look like models from a Vanity Fair article about the new generation of stylish guys and gals about town.
This whole scene paints a special picture for all observers of New York City’s endless surprises and potential adventures for all tourists today, showing what could transpire for anyone visiting this block in Brooklyn who has the misfortune of getting busted, getting bailed out, and after paying the bail bondsman, their lawyer,and bribing the judge, they can cool it after the trauma of spending some time in jail across the street by joining their neighbors just a few feet away and drink a Caffe Latte in the lobby of the NuHotel.
Noo Yawk, Noo Yawk…it IS a wonderful town!!!
Please send my best to Tina and those beautiful twin gals, who must be just about grownups by now.
STAY CREATIVE!!
David (promising young composer) amramdavid@aol.com http://www.davidamram.com home 845.528.4305 cell 914.299.3497 (New Address) 28 Hammond Plaza Beacon, NY 12508
Best YouTube selections http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DE566F6F01A2403A
http://www.twitter.com/David_Amram_
URL for trailer of the film “David Amram: The First 80 Years” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5v6MeanQ28
Link for viewing the film “David Amram: The First 80 Years” https://vimeo.com/ondemand/amramg
Thanks for CCing me in on this, David!
Take TWO There must have been some left-over cauliflower STUCK in my computer since i sent this out to you and somehow it must have ended up in the BAKE THAT CAKE CyberSpace Kitchen of lost e-mails, saying there was an error!!
I AM SENDING IT AGAIN LCK should be SWINGIN’ and TZ Hernandez is a KILLER young writer who will be there, and the saxophone player/poet/playwright Geoff is a MONSTER fine interpreter of Charlie Parker as well as a great actor and author of a one man play about Charlie Parker, and there is also a fine French-Canadian folk group coming.
Thus year they are also playing my chamber music which is a GAS, for the first of TEN 85th birthday celebrations taking place between Oct 10 and Dec 21st
TAKE TWO!!!
Lowell Celebrates Kerouac presents an evening of the classical chamber music of David Amram:
Saturday Oct. 10th, from 6-8 pm at St. Anne’s Church in Lowell Massachusetts, there will be a concert of composer David Amram’s classical chamber music compositions as part of the weekend’s annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival.
Amram, who began collaborating with Jack Kerouac in 1956, a year before “On the Road” made Kerouac a household name, shared a mutual interest with Kerouac in the treasures of European classical music, literature , theater and visual arts, and equal admiration for jazz and improvised music which celebrated both the Spontaneous and the Formal.
In 1957, Amram performed with Kerouac when they presented first public jazz-poetry readings ever done in NYC, and they continued doing a series of concerts together through 1958.
In 1959, Amram co-wrote the title song for the short film Pull My Daisy, setting the words of Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg to music. He also composed the chamber music/jazz score for the film, accompanying Kerouac’s spontaneous narration, and appeared in the film, at Kerouac’s request, as Mezz McGillicuddy, the deranged french hornist.
In 1964, Kerouac helped Amram find the texts for his cantata “A Year in our Land”, which included a setting for solo voice, chorus and orchestra of an excerpt from Kerouac’s “The Lonesome Traveler”
In the years since Kerouac’s death in 1969, Amram has written chamber music and Symphonic compositions honoring their friendship and the spirit of Kerouac’s zest for life and love of the beauty that surrounds us every day when we remember to pay attention.
All four of the compositions chosen by Amram for this concert in Lowell each have a Kerouac connection, which Amram will share with the audience when introducing each piece at the concert.
When Judith Bessette, President of Lowell Celebrates recently contacted Amram, he said “Returning to participate in Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival for the 21st time, and celebrating my upcoming 85th birthday this November 17th with a special concert of my chamber music compositions in Lowell is the best birthday present any composer could ever receive.Both my family and i would like to thank Cliff Whalen and all the volunteers of LCK who have made this possible. The three musicians and I are looking forward to participating in this special evening.
It remains a joy to return to this unique festival and to keep alive the spirit of always including new voices in all of the arts,an approach which Jack and I and so many artists of the 1950s shared within our respective communities. We all felt that part of our job was to foster creativity in others.
Coming to Lowell Celebrates Kerouac in 2015 and collaborating with a new generation of jazz and improvising musicians, songwriters, poets,and classically trained musicians was what Jack and I did together a half a century ago. This concert is a way of saying thank you to all the gifted artists who were our elders and encouraged us to dare to continue on the paths we had chosen, and always strive for excellence rather than for overnight success.
While much of my time at Lowell Celebrates Kerouac in previous years has been spent in supporting others as an accompanist, I also participated in some memorable classical concerts of my symphonic music which had a Kerouac connection, thanks to Kay Roberts of U.Mass Lowell who conducted her New England Chamber Orchestra in some memorable performances.
For this special concert at St Ann’s, three world class classical performers will play chamber music compositions of mine which were all inspired by the idea which Kerouac and I shared; the relationship of Spontaneity and Formality which provided endless possibilities for all creative artists as opposite sides of the same coin.
We both believed that the spirit of jazz as a way to celebrate the sanctity of the moment was something precious that only happened one time but which, when we sat alone and tried to decide what we were going to write down on paper, Jack’s words which were written to to be read and my notes which were to be played and heard, would provide us with the chance to combine the energy of the Spontaneous with the enduring value of the Formal.
By remaining open to all experiences and welcoming to all people , we were given the chance to catch that lightning in a bottle, by being in countless small places way beneath the radar in breathtaking jam sessions, and then going home and given a second chance to edit, develop and refine that boundless energy in our formal work, creating words and music from the heart that spoke to you in the way that these real life experiences spoke to us.
Jack and I both loved the brilliantly constructed music of Bach and the Baroque masters as much as we cherished the brilliant flights of fancy of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk.
We both appreciated that during his lifetime, Bach was famous as an improviser as well as a formal composer. and that Parker, Gillespie and Monk’s short sophisticated compositions upon which they based their perfectly constructed spontaneous solos remain timeless and are studied by a new generation of musicians worldwide.
We hope people will come and bring their families to this concert and hear how the three great musicians who are performing my music can make the four pieces I composed become transformed from notes on paper to a series of special moods and feelings that become alive as a reflection of their own interpretations and creativity.
During the concert, I will introduce each piece before it is performed and talk about how each one relates to my association with Kerouac.
Working with classical saxophone master Ken Radnofsky, known as the Segovia of the classical saxophone, accompanied by our pianist for the evening the brilliant young virtuoso Damien Francoeur-Krzyzek and the hearing the artistry and sensitive playing of the renowned viola soloist Consuelo Sherba is a composer’s dream come true.
These same musicians are all performing these pieces again at my tenth and final 85th birthday celebration which will take place in New York City December 21st. We will hope to bring some of the same special feelings of Kerouac and his hometown from this October 10th concert to Manhattan when we perform these pieces again..
The four compositions of mine which will be played for the October 10th concert in Lowell are
l The Wind and the Rain for Viola and Piano (1964)
ll Finale from Ode to lord Buckley A concerto for Saxophone and piano (1981)
lll Prologue and Scherzo for unaccompanied saxophone (1999)
lV Greenwich Village Portraits for Saxophone and piano (2014) a) McDougal Street (for Arthur Miller) b) Bleecker Street (for Odetta) c) Christopher Street (for Frank mcCourt)
To interview David Amram prior to the concert, you are welcome to e-mail him at amramdavid@aol.com or contact him directly at 914 299-3497.
His website http://www.davidamram.com has information about his work with Kerouac as well as his worldwide tours as a composer/multi-instrumentalist/conductor/band leader, author and lecturer in five languages.
All three of the soloists in the concert have web pages available on line by posting their names on Google.
Amram/s most current Biography is attached below, as well as information about his work in the past with Kerouac.
For all the events at Lowell Celebrates Kerouac 2015, access their webpage at
http://www.lowellcelebrateskerouac.org/festival
Begin forwarded message:
> From: David Amram > Subject: toStephanie a note while attending annual students poetry readings by students from Lowell High School > Date: October 9, 2015 at 2:13:05 PM EDT > To: Stephanie Nikolopoulos > > Dear Stephanie > > YASSOO one more time!! > > If the ten books which you mentioned that celebrated the immigrant experience included a Swedish-Americana tale, it’s only a natter of time before the new generation of literati-vultures discover that Socrates, Plato and Aristophanes as the greatest jazz=poets of their time, have had some DESCENDANTS, and start to look around and fine some modern day cats (and kitties) who are dealing with the Hellenic heritage everyday of their lives here in the New World to make it a better place for all of us who, except for the Native Americans, all got here by boat , and some , like Homer back then, and YOU right now , were and are able to write it DOWN! > > Homer had some help, since he couldn’t see, but like you, he knew how to tell a story and share it with others, so eventually YOU will be discovered by whoever is supposed to be the cultural anthropologist of the year. > > But in the meantime, you are doing it anyway, so just keep on being creative, and know that you are appreciated even in BlogLand!! > > All cheers from Lowell > > David >