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ARTISTS, BEATS & COOL CATS Jim Burns (Penniless Press) It could very well be that Jim Burns has his tongue firmly in his cheek when speaking of ‘cool cats,’ in his new collection of essays. This enduring poet and essayist has never seemed in the slightest concerned with anything as trivial as ‘cool.’ A whole raft of essays here which, true to the title, span the artistic disciplines. Burns speaks a precise and simple language and gets to the essence of his fascinations very quickly. The previous three volumes have revealed him as a traveller down obscure lanes and roads. So, in this thick collection there is Jackson Pollock, Maggie Cassidy, Cid Corman’s Origin magazine, Jack Kerouac, The Village Voice, Black Mountain College, Edwin Brock, the Objectivists, Dorothy Parker, Bebop, West Coast jazz and much more besides. Obscure English painters and writers as well. What Jim Burns seems to do very well is dust off the years from forgotten figures, the neglected, the overlooked, even those who truly never reached any level of recognition. Burns sees in many of them qualities that have been missed. Sometimes a poet’s standing can be but a good review away from being restored or enhanced. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and all that. The various essays span the decades. Some from as far back as 1976 and are culled from a diverse range of publications. His own 1970s magazine Palantir, the journals Iron, Ambit, the long running magazine run by Martin Bax and others. One thing that struck me was that as Burns edges towards 80 years old, his output shows signs of increasing and he has embraced the digital age to an extent, some of his work appearing on line. While Bebop and the Beats are key interests for him he is by no means limited in his outlook, with ‘Little magazines’ a particular favourite of his. He is a mine of information and it might be advisable to have a notepad handy to jot down some of his references. And, of course, with essays spanning almost forty years it is clear his style has evolved, there’s a slightly combative aspect to the Burns of the 1970s. He seemed on a mission to fight the mainstream, in his understated, but passionate way. His passions are always going to be largely obscure and we are better for it. These essays reveal worlds through doorways slightly ajar, his work beckons you in. Penniless Press www.pennilesspress.co.uk ISBN 978-1-291-85067-3 Larger format paperback Colin Cooper THE BEAT GENERATION BOXED (Enlightenment) Rebooted for 2014. Five compact discs billed as the ‘Beat Generation Boxed.’ While it is very entertaining and impressive, all is not quite what it seems. What is a real bonus are the two disc set that includes Jack Kerouac’s three LPs, the recordings that he saw released in his lifetime. Bonus tracks added include a brief interview Kerouac did with the Italian journalist Fernanda Pivano in 1966, whilst on his crazy tour to Europe, which partly resulted in his posthumous short novel Pic. There’s also a fifteen minute interview Kerouac did with Ben Hecht. Good stuff. Beat Generation Jazz is a two disc set billed as ‘The music that inspired a Revolution.’ Now that’s a big claim – but if you are including Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Lionel Hampton, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, George Shearing (remember that point in On the Road, when Dean says George Shearing is God?), Thelonius Monk, Chet Baker, Bud Powell, Dexter Gordon, and others. Ken Nordine is a fascinating inclusion. You get the picture? And then for good measure various Kerouac recordings with Steve Allen, though there is some duplication going on, with tracks already heard on the Kerouac discs. But still, all good. The third separate collection is one a few of you will have on your shelves already. Reissued here, ‘Diggin’ the New Breed. This one originally appeared some years ago. You’ll hear the voices of Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Snyder, Huncke, Lucien Carr, Ferlinghetti, Ed Sanders, Waldman, McClure. Somehow they spell Peter Orlovsky’s name incorrectly, as they do with Ann Charters, and Michael McClure. Surprising they didn’t put it right on reissue. Nearly six hours of listening here. And all for a mere ridiculous price of under £9. Not bad at all. www.chromedreams.co.uk Sophia Nitrate 58
Amiri Baraka & Edward Dorn The Collected Letters (University of New Mexico Press) Edited by Claudia Moreno Pisano Reviewed by Jim Burns Exchanges of letters between writers can offer insights into the characters of the people concerned as well as into their work. And they can additionally throw light on particular periods of literary activity. Amiri Baraka and Edward Dorn began to establish themselves as poets and prose writers at a time when American literature was widening its scope and the “New American Writing,” as it was often referred to, was starting to attract attention. This didn’t necessarily mean that people like Baraka and Dorn suddenly found it easy to break into print, nor did it lead to their being able to support themselves from their writing. But it may be interesting at this point to say something about them. Not everyone will necessarily be familiar with Baraka’s books, nor with Dorn’s. Some background information may be useful. Amiri Baraka, or Leroi Jones as he was called prior to his embracing black nationalism in the 1960s, was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1934, and grew up in what has been described as a stable, working-class household. He seems to have done well at school and won a scholarship to Howard University in Washington. But he soon rebelled against what he saw as its bourgeois educational ethics and left. He then joined the Air Force, though he was quickly discharged because he was suspected of communist tendencies. This was at a time when McCarthyism was rampant and any sort of deviant behaviour was suspect. It would appear that copies of Partisan Review were found in Jones’s locker. There’s a humorous side to this, Partisan Review being anticommunist and even probably supported by the CIA as part of its cultural programme. But the fact of it being an intellectual publication, and not given to the kind of populist anti-communism that Senator McCarthy and his supporters favoured, would probably have been enough for Jones to attract unfavourable attention. He soon moved to Greenwich Village and became involved in the “bohemian poetry, theatre, and music scene.” Over the years he established himself as a poet, editor, playwright, jazz critic, and political activist. Edward Dorn was born in Illinois in 1929 and so grew up during the Depression, something that was reflected in a poem like “On the Debt My Mother Owed Sears Roebuck.” Dorn attended Black Mountain College in the 1950s and got acquainted with Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Joel Oppenheimer, John Wieners, and others who would play a significant part in “The New American Writing” of the late-1950s and early- 1960s. Dorn wrote prose as well as poetry, but was never able to earn a living from his writing alone. He took part-time teaching posts and in 1965 was offered 59 Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka)...photo by Chris Felver. Included in his book, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING (Arena Editions) www.chrisfelver.com
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Number 73 Summer 2014 £4.50 Lew We
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Number 73 Summer 2014 Editor ditor.
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fall 1972 I moved from California t
Page 7 and 8: Robert Duncan, Jess, and Friends Du
Page 9 and 10: Robert Duncan, Jess, and Friends ra
Page 11 and 12: BILL BURROUGHS IN AMSTERDAM by Eddi
Page 13 and 14: Bill Burroughs in Amsterdam ‘Patt
Page 15 and 16: A Half-American Writer During the p
Page 17 and 18: A Half-American Writer Another impo
Page 19 and 20: CONVERSATIONS with KEN KESEY edited
Page 21 and 22: company alongside Charles Olson, Ro
Page 23 and 24: abstract expressionist painters wer
Page 25 and 26: Jeffers is my God interest in it. H
Page 27 and 28: Cajoled Not notified of ancient Cur
Page 29 and 30: Ginsberg on Kerouac Buddhism, too,
Page 31 and 32: Ginsberg on Kerouac after being in
Page 33 and 34: Ginsberg on Kerouac Inter ntervie v
Page 35 and 36: ----------- It’s Monday morning.
Page 37 and 38: they discover a dead seal and say,
Page 39 and 40: We pick up all our garbage and spli
Page 41 and 42: eaders. Since I was driving taxi, I
Page 43 and 44: Write a Madder Letter if You Can by
Page 45 and 46: Write a Madder Letter if You Can ho
Page 47 and 48: Billy Burroughs’ Prediction by Ed
Page 49 and 50: Billy Burroughs’ Prediction Despi
Page 51 and 52: THE BEAT SCENE REVIEW SECTION Dexte
Page 53 and 54: Damn Fine Letters work but he reall
Page 55 and 56: Jack Kerouac The Haunted Life and O
Page 57: The Haunted Life talk on porches, l
Page 61 and 62: Amiri Baraka & Edward Dorn happens
Page 63: Diane di Prima having her long hair
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