David Amram

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David Amram (born November 17, 1930) is an American composer, musician, and writer. His eclectic use of jazz (including being the first noted for jazz French horn), ethnic and folk music has led him to work with the likes of Thelonious Monk, Willie Nelson, Charles Mingus, Leonard Bernstein, and Jack Kerouac throughout the course of his career. He was appointed composer-in-residence to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1966–1967 season.

Amram was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Shortly before his seventh birthday, he and his family moved to a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His grandfather, David Werner Amram, who had been active in early American Zionist circles and had spent considerable time in Palestine, taught him basic Hebrew. His father, Philip Werner Amram, introduced him to cantorial music and classical music. Amram's uncle loved jazz, introducing him to recordings of great jazz artists, and took him to see many of them in person.

At the age of seven, Amram began piano lessons, experimenting with trumpet and tuba before settling on the French horn. In 1948 he spent a year at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, but earned a bachelor's degree in European history from George Washington University in 1952. During those years, Amram was an extra horn player with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Amram spent 1952 to 1954 with the United States Army in Europe, playing with the Seventh Army Symphony. While stationed in Paris for a year, Amram devoted himself to composition, and played with Lionel Hampton's band and other jazz groups.

Amram returned to the United States in 1955, attending the Manhattan School of Music. During that time he supported himself by playing with Charles Mingus at Café Bohemia, and Oscar Pettiford at Birdland. He also led his own jazz group at the Five Spot Café on the Bowery.

In 1959 Amram wrote music for and acted in Pull My Daisy, a film created and narrated by Jack Kerouac. The film featured other Beat Generation writers, including Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso. During the same year, he met director John Frankenheimer, and he was impressed enough by the composer that he asked him to compose the score for his television adaptation of Turn of the Screw. The song "Pull My Daisy" was re-recorded in 2002 by the rock band Curse with Amram and guitarist Marc Ribot as guest musicians.

His best-known work as a film composer, however, came with Frankenheimer's 1962 film adaptation of The Manchurian Candidate. Amram's score was a blend of post-war jazz, Latin music, and atonal classical composition. The orchestral passages in particular are scored a programmatic, highly rhythmic style that almost sounds like a bridge between the work of Anton Webern and Frank Zappa. The score is also notable for its unusual orchestrations, including such instruments as the harpsichord, and for the usage of jazz musicians such as Paul Horn for the recording, as most soundtracks from that time were generally recorded using orchestral musicians. However, the film was not a popular success when it was released (partially due to the fact that, soon after the film's release, John F. Kennedy was assassinated), though it is now regarded highly, as is Amram's score. The original soundtrack recording was briefly released on CD in 1997.

[edit] Discography

• 1992: Havana/New York (Flying Fish Records)
• 1995: Pull My Daisy (Premier Recordings)
• 1996: At Home/Around the World (Flying Fish Records)
• 1997: No More Walls (Flying Fish Records)
• 1998: Triple Concerto (Flying Fish Records)
• 1999: Southern Stories (Cedar Glen)
• 1997: Manchurian Candidate (Premier Recordings)
• 2004: "David Amram" (Naxos)
• 2005: Pictures of the Gone World (Synergy Ent)

[edit] Bibliography

• 2003: Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac (Thunder's Mouth Press) ISBN 1-56025-460-2

[edit] Reference

• Douglas Brinkley. Vibrations: The Adventures and Musical Times of David Amram (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2001) ISBN 1-56025-308-8

[edit] External links

• David Amram - Home Page
• David Amram - Appearance Schedule and Directory
• David Amram's 1998 letter regarding secular Judaism at Philosopedia.org