We noted last year, pre-release, the upcoming CD, Material Wealth, a companion piece to the book, happy to report it’s now out (and along with the book) receiving a deservedly enthusiastic response.
Hays Davis reviews the CD for Under The Radar magazine:
“Throughout”, Davis notes, “Material Wealth reminds how powerful and intriguing Ginsberg’s writing can be, and how compelling he was in its delivery”
Bill Kopp, reluctant at first, is turned around:
“I will admit right up front that I approached this album with some trepidation. Strictly speaking, Allen Ginsberg was a poet, not a musician.. (however)… Taken as a whole, Material Wealth stands as a useful survey of the breadth of (his) many gifts.. Ginsberg was more than a poet – he was an American troubadour with weighty topics on his mind.”
Simon Warner‘s always-engaging Substack, Rock and the Beat Generation, gives it an extensive and thoughtful review:
“In short, Thomas (Pat Thomas) has produced a compelling Ginsberg ‘best of’, a significant shrink of the voluminous boxed collection (Holy Soul Jelly Roll) to a single compact disc but one that now could be described as the portable version of the poet’s most interesting recorded output, much like those easy-to-carry greatest hits of texts by Kerouac or the Beats more generally, edited and overseen by figures like the venerable Ann Charters.”
He goes on:
“The material on Material Wealth has been lovingly chosen and skilfully curated by Thomas and this shiny little gem – with its heavily-detailed booklet – reiterates that, in an age of streamed music where so much sound strikes our ears without any true context, the physical CD and the crucial metatext that still comes with such an object – the explanatory essay, the painstaking notes, the essential credits, the pertinent images – will be lost to discerning listeners at their peril. That authoritative background is a valuable ingredient in this admirably crafted document.”
Warner’s Substack has been a font of interesting material of late. Maverick and outspoken Kerouac biographer, Paul Maher Jr is interviewed here
and Thomas is one of a trio of figures recollecting the late John Sinclair
We’ve also been following the serialized memories of John Allen Cassady (Neal & Carolyn’s son) – see here and here
Here’s a recently-discovered Beat item (courtesy the exemplary Diggers Archive), a 1998 interview (by Alice Gaillard and Celine Deransart) with the remarkable Lenore Kandel
For more on Kandel on The Allen Ginsberg Project – see here
Lenore Kandel, who was so much more than just The Love Book – but that too
Sad news reaches us yesterday, the passing of Allen’s friend, our friend, Andy Clausen.
We featured only a few weeks back, a gathering celebrating his most recent collection, The Fabled and The Damned (and Two Hearts Beat, a collection made in tandem with his recently-deceased soul-mate and partner, Pamela Twining)
Here again is footage of that Woodstock celebration:
Missing you, Andy – More Andy Clausen on The Allen Ginsberg Project – here and here