Poet With Jazz

A contemporary of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey as well as an influence on Bob Dylan, David Meltzer began his literary career during the Beat heyday in San Francisco, reading poetry to jazz accompaniment at the famous Jazz Cellar. Recorded and produced in 1958 by legendary L.A. record producer Jim Dickson (Lord Buckley, Lenny Bruce, the Dillards, the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Chris Hillman, Gram Parsons, Gene Clark), these recordings have never been released in any form until now. One of the first recordings to mix poetry with jazz, they harkens back to the days of the Beat Generation of the West Coast. His poetry is interwoven with the sounds of an ensemble of West Coast jazz musicians of the time, led by Bob Dorough on piano with Ernie Williams, trumpet, Chiz Harris, drums and Larry Honings, bass. Mastered by the renown Bernie Grundman, this recording is a trip back in time! David Meltzer is author of many volumes of poetry, including the Clown (Swmina, 1960), the Process (Oyez 1965) Yesod (Trigram 1969), Arrows: Selected Poetry, 19571992 (Black Sparrow Press, 1994) and No Eyes: Lester Young (Black Sparrow, 2000) and San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets (City Lights 2001). His musical recordings include Serpent Power and Poet Song. He teaches in the Humanities and graduate Poetics programs at the New College of California. He lives in the Bay Area.