The Many Worlds of David Amram Renaissance Man of American Music

Part I: Introductions

1. How to Explain David Amram? by Dean Birkenkamp
2. "All Joy" An Introduction to the Life-Artistry of David Amram, by Gary Lippman

Part II: David Amram’s Symphonic and Chamber Compositions

3. Amram’s Concert Hall Compositions, by Dean Birkenkamp
4. David Amram’s Chamber Music, by Elmira Darvarova
5. Premiering New Amram Compositions, by Kenneth Radnofsky
6. This Land: Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie, by Laura Schulkind
7. Sir James Galway: Commissioning and Premiering Giants of the Night, by Keith Marshall
8. Conducting Amram’s Violin Concerto, by JoAnn Falletta
9. Letting an Orchestra Feel Free and Inspired: The Art of Amram’s Conducting, by Howard Wall
10. A Promising Old Composer: The Power of Creativity in Later Life, by John Leland
11. Beethoven to Boxing: Artistry in Two Worlds, by Larry Merchant

Part III: Opera and Theater Contributions of David Amram

12. From Theater to Opera, by Dean Birkenkamp
13. David Amram: A Jewish Life in Music: The Final Ingredient and other Important Compositions, by Jeff Janeczko
14. The Essence of David Amram, by Keir Dullea
15. Remembering the Premiere of Amram’s Opera Twelfth Night, by Christopher Alden and David Alden
16. Filming Twelfth Night, by Lawrence Kraman

Part IV: Amram the Jazz Performer and Composer

17. A Lifetime in Jazz, by Dean Birkenkamp
18. David Amram’s Early Jazz Years and Collaborations, by Marc Myers
19. Amram and Cuba: Varieties of Afro-Cuban and Latin Musics, by Arturo O’Farrill
20. Innovations: Jamming with Amram Across the Decades, by Mark Morganelli
21. David Amram is a Musical Instrument, by Malachy McCourt
22. Now is the Time as Creative Manifestation of Consciousness,

by Hugh Ragin

23. No More Walls: The Ever-Wider World of David Amram, by David Cole

Part V: The Songs of David Amram

24. From Orchestral Compositions to Spontaneous Lyrics, by Dean Birkenkamp
25. A Composer’s Way with Words, by Hassan Melehy
26. The Songs of David Amram: Jazz, Classical, Film, and Operatic Compositions, by Gerald Bieritz
27. Scat and Make-Up Songs: The Art of One-Time Only Rap Reporting, by David Amram
28. Bourbon is Vegetarian, By Kurt Elling and David Amram

Part VI: The Whole Wide World of Amram’s Folk Performance

29. Performing the World’s Music, by Dean Birkenkamp
30. Performing Folk Music in Many Venues, by John McEuen
31. Remembering Odetta: 40 Years of Midnight Adventures, with Kris Kristofferson, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and　Others, by David Amram
32. Melding Folk and Symphonic: Commissioning This Land, by Nora Guthrie
33. The Dean of Hangout-ology at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, by Deana McCloud
34. A Unique Performer in the Folk World, by Barry Ollman
35. Musical Adventures with David Amram, by Radoslav Lorkovic
36. David Amram Doesn’t Play Music, by John Cooper

Part VII: Amram the Author—and His Collaborations with Writers

37. David Amram’s Literary Endeavors, by Dean Birkenkamp
38. Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac, David Amram, by Ronald Martinetti
39. Let Us Remember: Review of the Cantata by Langston Hughes and David Amram, by Paul Hertelendy
40. Vibrations, Musical Differences, Life with Others, by Charles Lemert
41. On Amram’s Book Upbeat: Nine Lives of a Musical Cat, by Frank McCourt
42. "Life is Even More Fun at 90" Amram and the Kerouac Legacy, by Holly George Warren

Part VIII: Hollywood and Beyond: Amram’s Film Scores

43. From the Village to Hollywood, by Dean Birkenkamp
44. Frankenheimer, Sinatra, and the Scoring of The Manchurian Candidate, by Neil Hickey
45. The Manchurian Candidate: The Novel, the Film, the Music, by Geoff Wills
46. Cinema’s Elusive Musical Poet: Scoring Splendor in the Grass, by Steve Vertlieb

Part IX: Amram’s Legacy: Mixing Musical Styles and Performance Traditions

47. Hearing a Singular Note in the Universe, by Dean Birkenkamp
48. Amram’s Musical Bouillabaisse, by Larry Kirwan
49. At Home Around the World, by David Amram
50. David Amram and Native American Musical Performance, by Matoaka Little Eagle
51. Native Flutes and Friendship, by Louis Mofsie
52. Diamonds in the Sidewalk: Kerouac, Amram, and the Bells of Hell, by Robin Hirsch
53. The Village and the Man Who Makes It Live On, By Elizabeth Thomson
54. An Icon of Inclusion and Pioneer of World Music, by Douglas Brinkley

Part X: Coda

55. You are Only as Old as You Make Other People Feel, by David Amram

Biography

Dean Birkenkamp has worked for 44 years in book publishing. Currently he is a Senior Editor with Routledge Publishers. He was the Founder and President of Paradigm Publishers, where he and his staff were fortunate to publish more than 800 books by leading scholars, journalists, musicians, and public intellectuals. An amateur pianist, he studied anthropology and music theory and composition at the University of Illinois—Champagne-Urbana. His previous book is Uncommon Sense from the Writings of Howard Zinn, with Howard Zinn and Wanda Rhudy.

"To do justice to the extraordinary depth and breadth of the art of the incomparable David Amram, one would need an encyclopedia--but this amazing book comes close. In essays of musicians from all over the globe a mosaic of this polymath emerges in vivid color. From chamber music to folk songs, from opera to the Jewish tradition, from jazz to Afro-Cuban culture, David’s music glows with absolute genius and his radiant love of humanity. A beautiful must-read volume, brilliantly curated by Dean Birkenkamp."

—JoAnn Falletta, Grammy Award-winning Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

 

Praise for David Amram:

"Amram is a one-man folk festival…who was multicultural before multiculturalism existed."

—The New York Times

 

"Amram dazzled with his versatility .... One could be but awed by his range."

—The London Times

 

"David Amram is a musical catalyst and leader on a par with Leonard Bernstein, Pete Seeger, and Dizzy Gillespie."

—Minneapolis Star & Tribune

 

"A Godsend to those who believe in the power of music to change lives and inspire."

—Wynton Marsalis

"David Amram is one of the most versatile and skilled musicians America has ever produced."

—Washington Post

 

"David Amram is the Renaissance man of American music."

—The Boston Globe

 

"Truly　American music.　Amram, through his genius　has built a marvelous musical tapestry, full of wonderful sounds and colors."

—Eugene Ormandy

"David Amram is a man of great humanity, wisdom, and generosity. A great story- teller.　His music is magic.　It takes you to another universe."

—Barbara Kopple, Academy Award-winning film maker　

{Amram has} engaged with almost every identifiable genre – jazz, folk, rock, country, blues, Latin, the many variants of native America, to name only some. This composer’s lifelong romance with music of all colours, creeds and cultures has been a passionate affair. It has seen him promiscuously cross-fertilise the sounds of every continent in a simmering pot of melody and lyric, rhythm and rhyme, and I think Dean Birkenkamp’s engrossing, many-layered overview does fine justice to this many-faceted man and his diverse attainments.

—Simon Warner, Research Fellow, University of Leeds, U. K., in Rock and Beat Generation