hepcats, i wanna hear some beatnik bongo jazz

I know the style you mean. I can't think of any authentic examples, but if you hadn't said no to the comedy sketch element - and even despite this - you should check out the Chinaboise album. As far as I can tell, MX-80 Sound aren't beatniks - although Rich Stim would make a good one! - but this record is some of those dudes, and a couple other Bloomington people hanging out and making songs and skits and stuff, and it's all hugely charming. And it's got some really great songs! Some with bongos, some without. And even some chanting. All in a 70s post-beatnik Indiana bongo-jazz-punk pop vein.

Actually, there's a thread for it already. And it has the word beatnik!
Go check out the Chinaboise (proto-MX-80)

http://home1.gte.net/res09cc9/dobie45.jpg

i'm embarassed i don't know this already. i had this james elroy book where he kept dropping names of obscure jazz soloists (the cop anti-hero was into jazz) but i don't have it anymore to dig through in search of names.

ok i remembered this much on my own: jack kerouac & steve allen - Poetry For The Beat Generation has no bongos, not even drums or a standup bass, but it is a realy nice beatnik jazz album in a solo piano kinda way.

also, i dug this up on the web:

http://www.hipwax.com/music/oddpop/O_fig/grecoml.jpg

"Queen of the Beats in song is Juliette Greco, originator of the all-black look beloved by both "beatploitative" caricaturists and, well, fashion. Homeless street urchin turned darling of the Left Bank Existentialists, and star of movies (including a Scopitone), Greco sang brilliant and haunting songs, many adapted from the great Parisian poets and literati. While most of the U.S. Beat literati were recorded, few could call themselves singers. Greco was probably the only one to successfully marry true Beat poetry to popular music."

haven't managed to find anything of hers to download yet...

As far as I can tell, MX-80 Sound aren't beatniks - although Rich Stim would make a good one!

Well, MX-80's guitars were usually too loud for coffeehouses, methinks. But, from that same mid-70s Indiana microscene, The Gizmos' "Hey Beat Mon!" (w/Stim guesting on alto sax) has a title that speaks for itself!

something tells me flutes are very important to this genre if it exists

Ken Nordine!

"Word Jazz" especially

Check out some Blossom Dearie records, esp. the self titled.

Kerouac played bongos while David Amram scatted at a reading that Amram says invented jazz/poetry. Any recordings available? http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=154

I know the style you mean. I can't think of any authentic examples, but if you hadn't said no to the comedy sketch element - and even despite this - you should check out the Chinaboise album. As far as I can tell, MX-80 Sound aren't beatniks - although Rich Stim would make a good one! - but this record is some of those dudes, and a couple other Bloomington people hanging out and making songs and skits and stuff, and it's all hugely charming. And it's got some really great songs! Some with bongos, some without. And even some chanting. All in a 70s post-beatnik Indiana bongo-jazz-punk pop vein.

Actually, there's a thread for it already. And it has the word beatnik!
Go check out the Chinaboise (proto-MX-80)

-- gnarly sceptre, Monday, July 21, 2008 10:40 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Link

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TwL-L5XlL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

^^ one track on this album is a great performance w/Amiri Baraka reading "Black Dada Nihilismus"

if we're stretching in that direction, it bears mentioning that Baraka's reading of "Black Art" on Sunny Murray's Sunny's Time Now is completely frenetic and incredible. He was a Beat, even if bleating Aylertones are not flutes and bongos...

jeeze, i've sifted through a fair bit of good jazz from the 50s/60's (chet, wes montgomery, blossom dearie, julie london, chico hamilton, gil evans, carmell jones) but NONE of it actually has bongos. where did this beatnik stereotype come from? did bongojazz only ever actually occur in 60's sitcoms or something?

Maybe folks were confusing the tiki/fernando's-hideaway with the Beats.

Minus bongos but still in integrated hep Greenwich Village:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000026R5.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif

Sorry, man. I thought the Betty Boop voice would make up for bongolessness.

I love the idea that this whole genre could exist only as a stereotype or parody of itself, a Hollywood hall of mirrors. But unfortunately, there may have been more to it than that: http://www.hipwax.com/music/patch/bongobop.html

I almost mentioned L, H, and R.

No bongos here either, but if you've never seen Roger Corman's "A Bucket Of Blood," the opening sequence is beatnik jazz hilarity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfB6X0SHZPY

Lou Donaldson's Blues Walk features Ray Barretto on the conga, but fits this style:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YWaV5_vIXaU

so thanks to this thread, after spending countless hours restlessly searching for groovy beatnik bongo jazz, i have found some really nice stuff. lots, even! i was thinking about zipping up a selection of an hour or so of the best stuff, loading it up to rapidshare (possibly with a cryptic name that won't attract a lot of attention if you didn't know to look for it), and sharing it with you guys - it's a nice hour of music and beatnik poetry, and i don't know who the hell else i know that would like it other than you guys.

BUT, i really don't know what ilx's policy is on this matter. it doesn't seem to be in the faq's, and a few quick searches of "policy", "rapidshare", "sharing" etc via the site search function reveals nothing. what's the official ilx stance on this sort of thing? what's the prevalent attitude among the regulars? this isn't the first time it's occurred to me to post up a collection of hard-to-find-and/or-compile-yet-technically-still-commercially-available stuff. do you guys want me to post something up, or would i just get yelled at?

Official policy is that "mixes" are OK, individual tracks frowned upon.

A compilation of obscure stuff you've put together is kind of a mix, even if it's not a single track, so go for it, I reckon, unless a mod tells you otherwise.

I want to hear it, anyway!

who's your fav ninja turtle

i was thinking of putting it together in a single mix, but god it'd take hours... here's the track listing from the playlist anyway:

1. Charlie Parker Jack Kerouac The Jack Kerouac Collection, Disc A: Poetry For The Beat Generation
2. Billie's Bounce Max Roach The Complete Mercury Max Roach Plus Four Sessions
3. (Get Your Kicks of) Route 66 Nat King Cole The World of Nat King Cole
Theme from Route 66 Laurindo Almeida Viva bossa nova!
4. Bebopper - The Gordons with Hank Jones Trio Various Artists The Beat Generation (Disc 2)
5. Cheek to Chico The Chico Hamilton Quintet / Elmer Bernstein Chico Hamilton, Fred Katz Soundtrack of “Sweet Smell of Success”
6. Drum-A-Mania Jack Costanzo Jack Costanzo Latin Fever
7. West Coast Blues Wes Montgomery The Incredible Jazz Guitar
8. The Beat Generation Jack Kerouac
9. Mama Yo Quiero Jack Costanzo Calazans/De Torre/Paiva/Stillman Latin Fever
10. Four Stan Getz West Coast Jazz
11. No Pictures, Please Rod McKuen The Beat Generation (Disc 2)
12. Comin' Home Baby Mel Tormé Ben Tucker, Bob Dorough Cocktail Mix, Vol 2 Martini Madness
13. Hunger Is From - Ken Nordine Various Artists The Beat Generation (Disc 2)
14. Taboo Jack Costanzo Latin Fever
15. Summertime Stan Getz West Coast Jazz
16. October In The Railroad Earth Jack Kerouac with Steve Allen The Beat Generation
17. Let's Get Lost Chet Baker Let's Get Lost

sounds like a fun one

here is something that doesn't really fit but oh well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAChMGAhfmA&feature=related

blooming auto-embed. clickthro works.

I don't usually toot my own horn on here, but I recently made this little e-lek-tronic tune that is my own personal tribute to beatnik bongo jazz:

http://www.imeem.com/people/EbCIw3V/music/6py24wek/mattyo-smokey/