AMG Review of Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation was the culmination of the author's short-lived recording career, a solo performance that transcends poetry and music -- it's literally spoken jazz, the artist improvising freely on the printed text of his own work in front of him. Produced by Bill Randle, it was Kerouac's most musical performance, despite the fact that the recording contained only his voice and no accompaniment, using his voice and language the way a saxophonist might improvise on a particular melodic line or riff. He's spellbinding throughout, intense, focused, and even subtly changing voices with the work itself. [Reissued in Rhino's Jack Kerouac Collection with a bonus track consisting of an excerpt from a 1958 forum on the existence of the "Beat Generation," held at ~Hunter College in New York.]