Kenneth Rexroth - Poetry Readings in the Cellar

Artist:

Rexroth, Kenneth

UPC:

025218771726

Description:

Personnel: Bruce Lippincott, Bruce Lippincott (tenor saxophone); Dickie Mills (trumpet); Bill Weisjahns, Bill Weisjahns (piano); Bob Lewis, Jerry Goode (acoustic bass guitar); Sonny Wayne (drums); The Cellar Jazz Quintet.
Audio Remasterer: Joe Tarantino.
Liner Note Author: Ralph J. Gleason.
Recording information: The Celler, San Francisco, CA (1957).
The term "counterculture" is used in connection with the `60s much more than the `50s, but the United States did have a counterculture in the `50s -- the decade that brought rock & roll, Lenny Bruce, James Dean, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, beatniks, and the beginning of free jazz. The `50s were known for Father Knows Best and Leave It to Beaver on television, but at the movie theaters you could see Frank Sinatra in The Man With the Golden Arm, James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, and Marlon Brando in The Wild One. So there was, in fact, a place for edgy, provocative, daring art in the `50s, but you had to know where to find it -- and for hipsters in San Francisco, one of the places to hear a combination of jazz and abstract poetry was the Cellar. Those beat poetry/jazz experiments of the late `50s weren`t always successful; some of them collapsed under the weight of their own self-indulgence. But two beat poets whose work has held up well after all these years are Kenneth Rexroth and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, both of whom are featured on Poetry Readings in the Cellar. Recorded at the Cellar in 1957, this CD boasts Rexroth`s angry, 21-minute rant "Thou Shalt Not Kill (In Memory of Dylan Thomas)" -- one of the most powerful, biting examples of beat poetry -- as well as three free-spirited offerings from Ferlinghetti: "Autobiography," "Junkman`s Obbligato," and "The Statue of St. Francis." Rexroth and Ferlinghetti are both joined by an acoustic bop quintet, which proves to be an appropriate accompaniment for the poets` very stream-of-consciousness performances. Beat poetry is an acquired taste, but for those who do have a taste for it, Poetry Readings in the Cellar is among the most essential releases of its kind. ~ Alex Henderson

Track Listing:

DISC 1

1. Thou Shalt Not Kill (In Memory of Dylan Thomas)
2. Autobiography
3. Statue of St. Francis, The
4. Junkman`s Obbligato

Album Information

Release Date:

10/12/2004

Type:

Performer

Genre:

Spoken Word

Label:

Fantasy

Catalog Number:

7717

Original Release Year:

1957

# of Discs:

1

Studio/Live:

Studio

Mono/Stereo:

Stereo

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