Description
This collection scrapes the bottom of the Jack Kerouac barrel, unearthing Kerouac documents both worthy of public scrutiny and ones that are not. The title to this CD is a tad misleading, as it begins with a late-1950s session of Kerouac singing, to jazz accompaniment, a song written for him by Sammy Kahn. There are several jump jazz tunes with Kerouac’s scat-flavoured vocalisations; they will be of interest solely to fans. Hipster music is added to several works, by avant-funk keyboardist John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin & Wood) and the jazz musician David Amram, who had collaborated with Kerouac on Robert Frank’s magnificent beat-era film Pull My Daisy. The meat of the collection is the 28-plus-minute previously unreleased reading of On The Road, a section that depicts the novel’s two central protagonists in the jazz haunts of San Francisco. Kerouac’s enthused (if affected) and likeable jive-bop poesy really comes alive on this cleaned-up acetate recording; thankfully there is no 1990s hipster music added to it. The other work of interest is a fragmentary song called “On the Road” which appears in a pseudo-original state (with Medeski organ added) and in a bluesy, ballsy interpretation by Tom Waits backed by Ralph Carney and Primus. –Mike McGonigal