Opportunity! (Contact Dr. Richardson)

Through reasons too complicated to explain, I’ve been drafted to find a group of students to meet on (probably) Friday, April 23, with David Amram, who will be here for an LSU Opera production of scenes from his opera based on Twelfth Night. Amram is an amazing character who has known and worked with people like Jack Kerouac , Langston Hughes, Arthur Miller, and Bob Dylan, as well as most of the jazz greats of the last sixty years. He and Keruoac did New York’s first jazz/poetry readings in 1957, he was in Kerouac’s film Pull My Daisy, and he wrote the film score for The Manchurian Candidate. There’s a documentary film being made about him by Larry Kraman, who works for Newport Classics (http://www.newportclassic.com/projoarticle.htm ). The students would be in the film. Larry is looking for a group of students who are interested in music and poetry. Amram apparently likes to do jazz improvs off the cuff to other people’s poetry. Check him out, maybe starting with the “scrapbook” page for his photos with some pretty impressive people:

http://www.davidamram.com/index.php

This would be a great opportunity for students (and us) to meet someone who’s a real link to the Beats and still, at 79, a remarkable creative artist in his own right. Can we put something together? We’ll have to coordinate through Dugg McDonough in the School of Music, who is his immediate sponsor. Looks like he’s free most of Friday, April 23, at this point.

Best wishes,

Malcolm


Malcolm Richardson
Associate Dean, The Graduate School
Dr. J.F. Taylor Professor of English
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Office: 225-578-2157 (Graduate School)/3161 (English Dept.)
Fax: 225-578-1370