David Amram: Celebrating Greenwich Village at the Museum of the City of New York

Photo: Regina Weinreich

At 89, David Amram is not slowing down. Celebrating his birthday at the Museum of the City of New York, and an exhibition of Fred McDarragh’s iconic photos from Greenwich Village back in the day, Amram, as times nicknamed “jamram,” led a jazz quintet: a brilliant Vic Juris on guitar, Rene Hart on bass, Kevin Twigg on drums and glockenspiel, Elliot Peper on bongos, and his son Adam Amram on congas. Plus guests: Paquito D’Rivera, Lea DeLaria, Martha Redbone, and Tom Chapin. Yes, the evening evoked the village’s storied past with songs from Pete Seeger and others. Looking out to the packed audience, Amram welcomed younger folk, and to those older than he, he quipped, “You shouldn’t be out so late.”

Of course, Amram’s repertoire, his playing two pipes simultaneously for his rendition of Sonny Rollins’ “St. Thomas” dating back to 1955 when he performed with Rollins and Charles Mingus at the original Café Bohemia on Barrow Street, fit right into the museum’s current theme, looking back at Greenwich Village in its cultural heyday. Lea DeLaria’s reading from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, was resonant for the passage describing George Shearing’s jazz solo achieving “IT,” backed by Amram & Co. One of the stars of Orange is the New Black, DeLaria achieved “IT” herself riffing that night! The evening closed with everyone joining in on Leadbelly’s “Goodnight Irene.”

Left out, alas, because –as in all great jazz nights, they could go on forever-- was the music from Pull My Daisy, an Amram composition with words by Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg. Its inclusion would have paid homage to filmmaker/photographer Robert Frank, who died last month, and who has had many substantial exhibitions of his work—but should very soon have another at The Museum of the City of New York. Are you listening?