What a life! Amram biog on the way

Full-length portrait in the works

LAST YEAR, I was delighted to positively review a well-deserved tribute to one of the Beat Generation’s most enduring figureheads, the jazz musician, orchestral composer and creator of multiple major movie scores David Amram.

The Many Worlds of David Amram: Renaissance Man of American Music, published by Routledge in 2023, was a collection of essays, reminiscences and testimonies from friends, collaborators and admirers gathered by a talented and experienced editor in the shape of Dean Birkenkamp.

Now Birkenkamp has revealed an unfolding and connected project, one of great interest to anyone who has followed Amram’s extraordinary history over 75 professional years.

He is planning a full-length biography of an individual who befriended Jack Kerouac in the mid-1950s, played at the novelist’s earliest live jazz poetry gigs and wrote the music for the classic Beat film Pull My Daisy in 1959, in short a presence at the very heart of that emerging literary community.

Amram’s personal arc since then been no less remarkable, spanning Shakespeare and Broadway, Hollywood and World music, time as Bernstein’s composer-in-residence at the Lincoln Center, continuing work with a galaxy of musical artists in the fields of jazz and Latin, country, folk and rock, collaboration with indigenous performers, symphonic and chamber compositions plus recordings of every scale and shade. Suffice to say, there is some life story to tell.

As Birkenkamp told Rock and the Beat Generation recently: ‘The Many Worlds of David Amram was a book written mostly by the talented artists who worked with him over the years. While it has a biographical component, I feel David deserves a full biography. It is one of the more fascinating lives at the centre of the American arts scene after World War II.’

In fact, the wheels are already turning on this venture. During December, Birkenkamp will spend time at Amram’s upstate New York home gathering further first-hand material to supplement his already swelling research files.

Pictured above: Amram with Willie Nelson

He summarises: ‘So far, I’ve competed 14 interviews with David for the biography, with another 15-25 interviews planned for next year. Thereafter, I begin talking to family members and many of his collaborating musicians, conductors, jazz and folk artists. So, 2025 and 2026 are years devoted mostly to interviewing. Here and there, I’ve drafted brief chapter sections, but only prototypes to hold until I complete the interviews.’

Amram, with his typical enthusiasm, warmly praises his involvement with Birkenkamp and over a long period of time. He tells me: ‘Dean was the master editor and publisher of my earlier publications. When he had his own Paradigm Press he handled my first three books Vibrations, Offbeat and Upbeat, all still available in paperback.’

Preparing the ground for the new title, Birkenkamp is conducting a round of fresh conversations as the year ends. These exchanges are happening in conjunction with veteran radio producer Steve Rathe, concurrently making a two-hour documentary special on Amram’s musical influences and achievements for broadcast in 2025.

Comments Amram: ‘Steve has been a master radio producer.since the 1960s as well as an old friend for 50 years Like Dean, Steve loves he music and the cultures, languages and traditions from where my music comes. They are both one in a million people and I am lucky to be working with them.’

Pictured above: Judy Collins with Amram

He adds: ‘All three of us are blessed by the addition of classical music producer and film-maker Lawrence Kraman. He made a feature film about my life and work some 15 years ago and has all kinds of archival sound recordings and filming that have never been seen or heard. He is helping us as well.’

Amram, a ripe and seasoned 94, remains as busy as ever, writing and arranging from his rural family base and still fulfilling live engagements. Yet such commitments provide something of a logistical challenge for both biographer and subject. Add to that, the fact that some other key interviewees for the book are also in their tenth decade – including David’s 98-year-old sister Mariana – and we can see why crisp progress is a priority.

Yet Birkenkamp is realistic about his schedule. ‘I think the biography is a 3 to 4 year project though David understandably hopes it will be less. And if I’m able to, maybe it can be.’ We await, in due course, a comprehensive portrait of a Beat legend and a musical powerhouse whose productivity has matched his longevity.

See also: Book review #18: The Many Worlds of David Amram, November 11th, 2023