Kenneth Patchen Reads His Poetry with the Chamber Jazz Sextet Cadence CLP-3004 (1957)
The Poet:
Kenneth Patchen was born. The place was Niles, Ohio. The date, December 3, 1911. He attended a small school somewhere in Arkansas. From there, he went to the Alexander Meiklejohn Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin. After one year he left to work in a steel mill. Patchen was seventeen.
All kinds of jobs followed. In recent years, however, Patchen has been writer and painter exclusively. At various times he lived in New York, Boston, Santa Fe, Phoenix, New Orleans and Connecticut. Currently, he's married and settled on the California coast.
Patchen is prolific. Since his first book of poetry won him a Guggenheim Fellowship, he's been publishing steadily. Some of his books are:
(Prose) The Journal of Albion Moonlight
The Memoirs of a Shy Pornographer
Panels for the Walls of Heaven
See You in the Morning
Sleepers Awake
They Keep Riding Down All the Time
(Poetry) An Astonished Eye Looks Out of the Air
Cloth of the Tempest
The Dark Kingdom
First Will and Testament
Pictures of Life and Death
Red Wine and Yellow Hair
Selected Poems
To Say If You Love Someone
When We Were Together
Hurrah for Anything
Kenneth Patchen's books have been translated and published in France, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Holland. Several have appeared in England. To date he has done some 508 volumes of his Painted Books series.
All the poems Mr. Patchen reads on this record are available in the third edition of The Selected Poems of Kenneth Patchen, published by New Directions.
The Players:
Allyn Ferguson [ -2010]: Piano, Electronic Piano, French Horn, Percussion
Fran Leal: Alto, Saxophone, Bass Clarinet
Modesto Briseno: Tenor and Baritone Saxophones, Clarinet
Robert Wilson: Trumpet, Percussion
Fred Dutton: Bass, Bassoon, Contra-Bassoon
Tom Reynolds: Drums, Tympani
Allyn Ferguson has been quoted as saying the Chamber Jazz Sextet was conceived with the purpose of synthesizing jazz and "serious music." To furthther this end, the group uses the tools of jazz to the utmost. These tools naturally include the instruments basic to the jazz medium, musicians well-schooled in phrasings and interpretations, compositions and arrangements, calculated to take full advantage of contemporary jazz sounds and techniques.
An extensive study of Western music gives the group a free familiarity with established musical forms. And they are not afraid to experiment with them. This comes from each of the six musicians being an artist in his own right-a student as well as a player of jazz.
The Pact:
When first discussing the possibility of setting poetry to jazz, Kenneth and I agreed that the usual procedure of setting text to music would have to be abandoned. The final product, we felt, should be conceived in terms of the poet's interpretation of the text. It seemed evident, however, that the music would be quite unnecessary were there no attempt to bring about a meaningful union between the two mediums. We decided, therefore, to tape-record the readings and underscore them. This procedure would have the double value of retaining the spontaneity of the original reading while still allowing freedom for the creation of a significant musical entity.
The music, them, was composed to the poet's readings-and designed to fortify the emotional content of the poetry. Musical material was borrowed for only one poem-The Lute In The Attic. The song When Corinna To Her Lute Softly Sings, by Thomas Campion (pub. 1603) was used as a theme for variations. No history of this enterprise would be complete which did not record the fact that it was at the home of Richard Bowman, the great jazz fan and painter, that the poet and members of the band first met and discussed what might be done in this new medium.
The end-product, however, came into existence throught the technical assistance and infinite patience of engineers Wally Kamin and Thorne Nogar. Albert Marx, who produced this recording, must be mentioned for his unfailing sympathy and faith in the entire project.
-Allyn Ferguson
Also by the Chamber Jazz Sextet Chamber Jazz Sextet Cadence CLP 1020