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ARTISTS, BEATS & COOL CATS<br />
Jim Burns<br />
(Penniless Press)<br />
It could very well be that Jim Burns has his tongue firmly in his<br />
cheek when speaking of ‘cool cats,’ in his new collection of essays.<br />
This enduring poet and essayist has never seemed in the slightest<br />
concerned with anything as trivial as ‘cool.’ A whole raft of essays<br />
here which, true to the title, span the artistic disciplines. Burns<br />
speaks a precise and simple language and gets to the essence of his<br />
fascinations very quickly. The previous three volumes have revealed<br />
him as a traveller down obscure lanes and roads. So, in this thick<br />
collection there is Jackson Pollock, Maggie Cassidy, Cid Corman’s<br />
Origin magazine, Jack Kerouac, The Village Voice, Black Mountain<br />
College, Edwin Brock, the Objectivists, Dorothy Parker, Bebop,<br />
West Coast jazz and much more besides. Obscure English painters<br />
and writers as well. What Jim Burns seems to do very well is dust off<br />
the years from forgotten figures, the<br />
neglected, the overlooked, even those<br />
who truly never reached any level of<br />
recognition. Burns sees in many of<br />
them qualities that have been missed.<br />
Sometimes a poet’s standing can be<br />
but a good review away from being<br />
restored or enhanced. The slings and<br />
arrows of outrageous fortune, and all<br />
that.<br />
The various essays span the decades.<br />
Some from as far back as 1976 and<br />
are culled from a diverse range of<br />
publications. His own 1970s magazine<br />
Palantir, the journals Iron,<br />
Ambit, the long running magazine<br />
run by Martin Bax and others. One<br />
thing that struck me was that as<br />
Burns edges towards 80 years old, his output shows signs of increasing<br />
and he has embraced the digital age to an extent, some of his<br />
work appearing on line.<br />
While Bebop and the Beats are key interests for him he is by no<br />
means limited in his outlook, with ‘Little magazines’ a particular<br />
favourite of his. He is a mine of information and it might be<br />
advisable to have a notepad handy to jot down some of his references.<br />
And, of course, with essays spanning almost forty years it is clear his<br />
style has evolved, there’s a slightly combative aspect to the Burns of<br />
the 1970s. He seemed on a mission to fight the mainstream, in his<br />
understated, but passionate way. His passions are always going to be<br />
largely obscure and we are better for it. These essays reveal worlds<br />
through doorways slightly ajar, his work beckons you in.<br />
Penniless Press<br />
www.pennilesspress.co.uk<br />
ISBN 978-1-291-85067-3<br />
Larger format paperback<br />
Colin Cooper<br />
THE BEAT GENERATION BOXED<br />
(Enlightenment)<br />
Rebooted for 2014. Five compact discs<br />
billed as the ‘Beat Generation Boxed.’<br />
While it is very entertaining and<br />
impressive, all is not quite what it<br />
seems. What is a real bonus are the<br />
two disc set that includes Jack<br />
Kerouac’s three LPs, the recordings<br />
that he saw released in his lifetime.<br />
Bonus tracks added include a brief<br />
interview Kerouac did with the Italian<br />
journalist Fernanda Pivano in 1966,<br />
whilst on his crazy tour to Europe,<br />
which partly resulted in his<br />
posthumous short novel Pic. There’s<br />
also a fifteen minute interview Kerouac<br />
did with Ben Hecht. Good stuff.<br />
Beat Generation Jazz is a two disc set<br />
billed as ‘The music that inspired a<br />
Revolution.’ Now that’s a big claim –<br />
but if you are including Charlie Parker,<br />
Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy<br />
Eldridge, Lionel Hampton, Fats<br />
Navarro, Miles Davis, George<br />
Shearing (remember that point in On<br />
the Road, when Dean says George<br />
Shearing is God?), Thelonius Monk,<br />
Chet Baker, Bud Powell, Dexter<br />
Gordon, and others. Ken Nordine is a<br />
fascinating inclusion. You get the<br />
picture? And then for good measure<br />
various Kerouac recordings with Steve<br />
Allen, though there is some duplication<br />
going on, with tracks already heard on<br />
the Kerouac discs. But still, all good.<br />
The third separate collection is one a<br />
few of you will have on your shelves<br />
already. Reissued here, ‘Diggin’ the<br />
New Breed. This one originally<br />
appeared some years ago. You’ll hear<br />
the voices of Kerouac, Burroughs,<br />
Ginsberg, Snyder, Huncke, Lucien<br />
Carr, Ferlinghetti, Ed Sanders,<br />
Waldman, McClure. Somehow they<br />
spell Peter Orlovsky’s name incorrectly,<br />
as they do with Ann Charters, and<br />
Michael McClure. Surprising they<br />
didn’t put it right on reissue. Nearly six<br />
hours of listening here. And all for a<br />
mere ridiculous price of under £9. Not<br />
bad at all.<br />
www.chromedreams.co.uk<br />
Sophia Nitrate<br />
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