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VIBRATIONS by David Amram

VIBRATIONS

By

Pub Date: Sept. 30th, 1968
Publisher: Macmillan

At thirty-seven David Amram is already one of our established musical eminents--background composer for Broadway--After the Fall, The Passion of Joseph D. and Hollywood--Splendor in the Grass, The Young Savages, The Manchurian Candidate and he was recently tagged by Bernstein to be the first composer-in-residence for the New York Philharmonic. Happily, his autobiography is most modest and disarming and interesting as the scene switches from boyhood slum life in Washington to a jazzy G.I. tour of Europe, stint in Paris, and life from Manhattan's lower East Side to Easthampton. And the gigs--with Charlie Parker, Mingus, Monk, Sonny Rollins, Lionel Hampton--and the sessions with Joseph Papp (Amram cued the New York Shakespearean Festival for two years), Kerouac, Dave Lambert, Allen Ginsberg, Elia Kazan, George Plimpton, Paddy Chayefsky, etc. Whether taking a short shift as a short order cook, putting on a concert or putting down Jack Warner, David Amram has a catchy enthusiasm and the Vibrations are all good.