David and Adira Amram doing a duet from "On the Road"
   &    
David and his daughter Adira Amram performing musical accompaniment to "On the Roof of America" from "On the Road"

David Amram is one of America's foremost composers and musicians. Meeting him was like meeting a contemporary Mozart, the way his mind wheeled and reeled from idea to idea reminded me of contrapuntal harmony, I could feel him running five or six melodic lines of language all at once, a coherent flow of musical thought always, always linked to the heart. It was hard to keep up, impossible to let go.

 

David Amram in interview



"On the Roof of America"
David Amram has composed more than 100 orchestral and chamber music works, written many scores for Broadway theater and film including the classic scores Splendor in The Grass and The Manchurian Candidate, two operas including the ground-breaking Holocaust opera and ABC Television Event The Final Ingredient, and the score for the landmark 1959 Beat Generation documentary film with Jack Kerouac, Pull My Daisy.

David was a great friend of Jack Kerouac. They gigged together, David on piano, Jack on words. They collaborated on "Pull My Daisy", the Robert Frank's classic definitive beat film, with Allen Ginsberg and the late Larry Rivers.
pic:      http://www.fmp.com/amram/PullMyDaisy.html

American flags in Times Square, New York City
Times Square, July 4th 1998


Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac


Jack Kerouac


Jack Kerouac

 

Jack links: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Authors/
K/Kerouac,_Jack/

Jack in his own write: http://www.cmgww.com/historic/kerouac/quotes.html

David talks on Jack: http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/mainHTML.cfm?
page=amram.html

homebaked Jack and some good pix:
http://www.tijean.freeserve.co.uk/

David Amram is the author of two books, "Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac", and "Vibrations", his personal memoir.