Upbeat: Nine Lives of a Musical Cat
Amram conducting the Houston Symphony, 1968. Photo by Tom Bywaters. Used with Permission.
Upbeat:
Nine Lives
of a Musical Cat
David Amram
First published 2008 by Paradigm Publishers
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright 2008, Taylor & Francis.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Amram, David.
Upbeat : nine lives of a musical cat / David Amram.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59451-424-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Amram, David. 2. ComposersUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.
ML410.A534A3 2008
780.92dc22
2007032936
ISBN 13 : 978-1-59451-424-1 (hbk)
ISBN 13 : 978-1-59451-425-8 (pbk)
Designed and typeset in 11-point Garamond 3 by Straight Creek Bookmakers.
Dedicated to those who gave me these words of wisdom
I named my song Nows the Time because Now is what it was, what it is today, and what Now will always be. The right time!
Charlie Parker in a conversation with me in my basement apartment in Washington, DC, 1952.
You must always love the music more than you love yourself
New York Philharmonics conductor Dimitri Mitropolous in a conversation with me in New York, 1955
Why dont you guys just calm down once in a while?
Advice from artist Dody Muller to Jack Kerouac and myself in New York, 1960.
Your job as a composer is not just to please yourself. You should add something the repertoire.
Leonard Bernstein to me in New York, 1978.
Sincere musicians playing all types of music together like were doing this weekend will bring the world together.
Drummer Max Roach in a conversation after a concert in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, 1982.
Music heals, and folk music is the root of the musical tree.
Folksinger Odetta to me in Greenwich Village, 1994
Write the way you talk.
Advice to me from Kurt Vonnegut in New York, 2004
Always follow your heart. It will tell you the right thing to do.
Floyd Red Crow Westerman in a conversation with me in Venice Beach, California, 2007
David Amram conducting the Austin Symphony in a performance of Amrams Theme and Variations on Red River Valley, July 2001. Photo by Jim Dirden. Used with permission.
Contents
by Frank McCourt
David Amram composing at his home. Courtesy of David Amram.
Let us bend an elbow and raise a glass to that great moveable feastDavid Amram. Better still, and more appropriate, let us reach for whatever instrument we play and serenade him.
All this, of course, after weve read his latest memoir, Upbeat: Nine Lives of a Musical Cat. Nine lives? Oh, the man is modest. He has led at least fifty lives and touched the lives of millions. It may be a bit of clich to say it but he isand has beenPied Piper to those millions.
The books first chapter is an account of Davids experiences at the memorial service of Hunter Thompson. Youre barely into the chapter when you encounter the likes of Doug Brinkley, Johnny Depp, Lyle Lovett, and Ed Bradley.
A memorial service or, in the case of Hunter Thompson, a celebration, is the cue for a massive series of Amram reminiscences. Does the man know a billion people? Look at the names. In his seventy-odd years on this planet David seems to have met anyone who tooted a horn, plucked a stringed instrument or banged on a drum. He has hung out with Jack Kerouac, George Plimpton, Bob Dylan, Leonard Bernstein, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Musically, he is at home everywhere.
Everywhere, man!
Drop him in Lithuania and hes tootling on some local flute. Slip him into Carnegie Hall and hes conducting an orchestra. Hell, he conducts orchestras everywhere. Hes the one youll see supplying heavenly background music on judgment daythough not if anyone is turned away from the gates of Heaven. Oh, no. David Amram is all joy. David Amram is all music, and the music can be made with instruments or with language itself.
Yeah, man, hes into his eighth decade but hed exhaust fourth graders in a playground. You can dip into this book at any page and find yourself breathless with wonder, music, and laughter. That is his magic. He moves through life and music with an openness that makes the rest of us look worn. He praises and praises and loves and loves. He personifies that dictum of Thomas Carlyles, Happy is the man who has found his work.
Work? Well, I dont know if David Amram even thinks of work. His life is music and music is his life. Its as natural as his breathing, though he breathes with a mighty gusto.
This is a cosmic and a microcosmic memoir. It is leavened, not with just love of music, but of life itself, of family, of language, of gusto.
Dont try reading this book in one sitting.
And leave your critical tendencies at the door.
David Amram is beyond criticism, and if you say otherwise Ill invite you out that door.
Youre in for a treat, pilgrim!
I would like to thank my three children, Alana, Adira, and Adam for the inspiration they gave me to write these stories for them to share with their children some day. And my gratitude to their mother, Lora Lee, who made them a home, gave them love, understanding, and the confidence to be creative people in their own right and grow up to be strong, compassionate, and gracious to others.
To my sister, Mariana, who has been a soul mate my entire life, and my parents Emilie and Philip Amram, and my uncle David, who gave me a foundation of basic values for building a life.
Also, to David Stanford, who gave me the idea when we spoke in 1994 of writing a book which would recount the many lives I have lived and the numerous adventures I have experienced through my work in many genres of music.
