Reads On The Road

When Rykodisc released their excellent Kerouac tribute CD, Kicks Joy Darkness, three years ago many people felt that the company would be hard pressed to top that album. Well, we were wrong; they have indeed topped it, and with a CD of rare material by Jack Kerouac himself.

The stand-out item on this set has got to be Jack's thirty minute reading of the "Jazz of the Beat Generation" section from On the Road. Although Kerouac recorded extracts from his most famous book more than forty years ago, none were ever released and the tapes were thought to be lost. A complete On the Road album was planned at the time, but never materialized, and there has long been a search for the recordings that Jack made at his Verve session in the last week of February 1958. During that week in New York, Kerouac recorded an album with Steve Allen on piano, released on the Dot and Hanover labels, and enough material for three other LPs of unaccompanied readings for Verve: "Four goddam albums in one week," as Jack wrote to his poet friend Philip Whalen. Only one of the three Verve LPs (Readings on the Beat Generation) was issued by the company at the time, and the other two, including the planned On the Road set, did not appear; the master tapes have never been located.

Now that an extract from On the Road has finally been released on CD, can it be from the lost session? The answer has to be almost certainly yes. The liner notes tell us it came from (mislabelled) acetates in the possession of the Kerouac estate. These acetate discs were the sort of thing that record companies would quickly press from their master tapes in order to allow the performer to listen to their recordings prior to release. There's evidence from Kerouac's letters to friends in the summer of 1958 that he had been listening to these acetates at home, and was eagerly awaiting their release. "Greatest poetry records since Dylan Thomas ... I really read like a bitch," he told Allen Ginsberg. The two 12-inch acetates recently found amongst Kerouac's belongings contain, according to handwritten titles on the labels: "Early History of Jazz", "Excerpts from The Subterraneans", "Zoot Sims", and "Charlie Parker" (in two parts). It is the "Charlie Parker" tracks which are mislabeled and actually play the On the Road extract. The first two tracks listed appeared on the single Verve LP released at the time, and this helps confirm that the On the Road reading comes from that same February 1958 session. "Zoot Sims", so far unreleased, is a short poem called "Hurrah for Zoot Sims", actually chorus #32 of Orlanda Blues, which Jack wrote in Florida just a few days before travelling to New York for his recording sessions.

But how come the mistitling of the On the Road extract as "Charlie Parker"? When Jack was anticipating making these recordings in January 1958, he wrote to friends that he was going to be recording for Verve "in front of unreleased [Charlie] Parker tape," so this may explain the labelling. In fact, this did not happen, and in June he told Philip Whalen that "the three albums I made for Norman Granz [at Verve] are being listened to by Shorty Rodgers and Jimmy Giuffre, and then they're going to compose scores over it." Rodgers and Giuffre, prominent jazz musicians, would no doubt have been given similar acetates from which to hear Jack's voice and compose their accompaniments. Again, nothing came of this plan, and, apart from the one unaccompanied Verve LP by Jack, no other material from that session was ever released -- until now. So, although the master tapes have still not been found -- the search will hopefully continue -- we are indeed lucky that we are able to hear a section of the missing material courtesy of these acetate discs.

Jack's reading of this item is as magnificent as expected, and it has to be the highlight of the CD, a mad, whirling account of the formative years of Bop as experienced in the small clubs of San Francisco and Chicago. It's a wonderful performance, interpreted precisely as the writer intended, and as no one else can - by the man himself. Strictly speaking, what Jack reads is "Jazz of the Beat Generation", a piece he wrote for publication in New World Writing in 1955, which mixes together extracts from On the Road and Visions of Cody. There are large sections of the text in On the Road as well as subtle differences. The unnamed tenorman/singer who Kerouac describes himself and Neal Cassady digging in 1949 at a San Francisco jazz-club in On the Road becomes two separate people in this reading -- a tenorman, and a singer named Freddy, who has recently been identified, from one of Neal's letters, as Freddy Strong, a vocalist and conga drum player who went on to tour and record with Dizzy Gillespie two years later.

Jack mimics Freddy's singing well in this reading, and there are more examples of his vocal work to come. The following track is a home recording of Jack singing a song called "On the Road", which includes lines from the verses to be found in Part Four of the book as well as others from the short story The Rumbling, Rambling Blues, backed by a simple but effective dubbed-on guitar and keyboard accompaniment. The album finishes with another version of the same song, this time performed by Tom Waits with the band Primus. There are four other songs on the CD, all sung by Jack, backed by jazz musicians in his friend Jerry Newman's New York recording studio in the late 1950s or early '60s. On these standard ballads, although obviously high, Jack performs creditably, even if he does invent some lyrics of his own along the way, and the quality of his singing voice is bound to be a pleasant surprise for many.

Two further tracks feature Jack reading his blues poems Orizaba 210 Blues (the first thirteen choruses), and Washington D.C. Blues, and for these performances David Amram, an old friend of Kerouac's, has composed special soundtracks to accompany and enhance Jack's readings. Although it is suggested in the liner notes that the original tape of Orizaba 210 Blues was also made at Jerry Newman's, it is now thought that both blues poems were probably recorded by Jack at home. As was common with Kerouac's home recordings, a record, usually by Sinatra, was playing in the background. This was felt by the producers to be a distraction to Jack's readings and so was reduced using the latest digital technology, with Amram's sensitive musical score further masking the intrusions, although small bursts can occasionally still be heard under the added music. It's good to hear Jack read from Orizaba 210 Blues, the only other performance from that poem so far available being the "Slouch Hat" section on the album with Steve Allen. The Washington D.C. Blues reading is also lively, and includes the delightful little poem "Schatzi is a Dachshund", a version of which, illustrated by artist Teura Maffei, is in the Fales Collection at New York University.

So, an altogether fascinating collection of 75 minutes of the rarest Kerouac material, expertly performed by the master himself, and a must for all enthusiasts. Producers Jim Sampas and Lee Ranaldo are to be congratulated on putting it all together so well, and the hope must be that even more of the same is to follow.

Just beautiful to hear Kerouac on record. If you haven't bought the (superior to be honest)rhino box set of his recorded work then you really should think about getting this. Although the title of the CD is misleading (its not a spoken word recording of on the road, but a half hour passage is read on the CD)it is just amazing to hear him reading his own work. There is precious little available of the magic of Jacks voice which is a sad fact and every Kerouac fan wishes there was more to see and hear of the guy other than his literary output.But sadly its just not available. This Cd is a good place to start.He reads with such a power and emotion in his intense softness, lending such depth to the words. Personally i love it, he can sing too! OK so he never was a musician, but he can really sing a good song. The man will never die and i highly recommend this if you're a Kerouac fan.

Listening to this really cheers me up. Jack Kerouac's rich lovely storytelling voice feels so close, like he's there with you. Even if he isn't a great musician, I enjoy the songs: he puts his soul into them, they have a real, vital energy. I particularly love Washington DC Blues. It's just a man reading his thoughts about anything he thinks of aloud, and I find it very comforting and tender.