André Previn
Performing Music From
The Subterraneans
The Subterraneans was originally a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) which, besides being in many ways autobiographical, attempted to portray an element of the new generation called the "beat" movement. Many of the characters in the novel had real life counterparts, much to the chagrin of the affected parties. In fact, Kerouac's publisher convinced him to change the novel's setting from New York (where the real autobiographical facts had taken place) to San Francisco, in order to avoid future legal actions. The Subterraneans is considered to be the first book about the "beat generation", but it was not the only one, and there was a kind of race between Kerouac and his friend John Clellon Holmes to see whose novel would be published first. (Holmes had written his own book about the beat movement, titled Go, in which Kerouac plays a fundamental part and is credited as the inventor of the term "beat".) It must be said, however, that the term "beat generation" was copyrighted by movie producer Albert Zugsmith even before Kerouac tried to do it, and was used in the infamous motion picture "The Beat Generation", in which, ironically, jazz also takes part, as Louis Armstrong and his All Stars play a few numbers surrounded by numerous pop musicians of the period.
Kerouac's response to such an insult was the production of a movie based on his own book, in which the writer himself assumed an acting role. Although the film was made by a top studio and counted many major names in the cast, the result was hardly comparable to the original book. This was largely due to the extreme level of censorship which dominated Hollywood at the time. Many important things in the book had to be changed in order to make it "acceptable". For instance, an interracial relationship had to be omitted and the female African American character was changed to a French white woman played by Leslie Caron. Censorship lasted during most of the beatnik movement's existence, and when it finally disappeared, the beats had been replaced by the hippies. The original beats, and particularly writer and poet Allen Ginsberg, have always denounced the movie because of its obvious concessions to Hollywood's conservative moral standards. However, it was good for Jack Kerouac, who received 15.000 dollars for the rights to his book. He used the money to buy a house in Long Island, the first one he ever owned.
The plot narrated the experiences of a depressed writer (George Peppard), who "goes down" to explore the "subterranean world" of San Francisco's North Beach district in the late fifties, with the hope of finding some kind of soulmate, and falls in love with a French girl (Leslie Caron) who is part of the beatnik movement. Other than the eventual use of beat terms derived from Kerouac's book, little is left from the original novel. Some characters are slightly disguised representations of real people (Frank Carmody is based on William Burroughs, Adam Moorad on Allen Ginsberg, Ariel Lavalerra on Gore Vidal). The dramatic change of the main female character from African American (in the book) to French white (in the movie) has always been the main source of debate. However, not even Kerouac's original literary representation of black culture satisfied African Americans, who felt that it portrayed them in a very superficial manner, without delving into their real culture and social position of that time.
Jazz is central to the novel and, thus, to the movie. The beat movement usually moved around jazz clubs, and its literary grammar owes a lot to jazz's improvisatory language, which is presented as "spontaneous prose". All this grammar is, obviously, absent from the movie, but it survives in the splendid musical soundtrack, which was prepared solely by jazz musicians. Some of them, like Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper and Carmen McRae, also play colorful characters in the movie.
In conclusion, even if we can say The Subterraneans film is today nothing more than a historical curiosity, with little artistic value, the same cannot be said about its music. What we have here is the complete original soundtrack from the film, carefully composed by pianist André Previn, and performed by some of the most important musicians of its time. In addition to the aforementioned Mulligan, Previn, Pepper and McRae, also Bill Perkins, Jack Sheldon, Art Farmer, Russ Freeman, Bob Enevoldsen, Red Mitchell, Buddy Clark, Shelly Manne and Dave Bailey are heard on this amazing score. *Jordan Stewart*
Side 1
1 - Why Are We Afraid?
(André Previn, Dory Langdon)
2 - Guido's Blackhawk
(André Previn)
3 - Two By Two
(André Previn)
4 - Bread And Wine
(André Previn)
5 - Coffee Time
(Harry Warren, Arthur Freed)
6 - A Rose And The End
(André Previn)
Side 2
7 - Should I
(Nacio Herb Brown, Arthur Freed)
8 - Look Ma, No Clothes
(André Previn)
9 - Things Are Looking Down
(André Previn)
10 - Analyst
(André Previn)
11 - Like Blue
(André Previn)
12 - Raising Caen
(André Previn)
#1, #3, #6, #8, #10
André Previn (piano, arranger, conductor),Gerry Mulligan (baritone sax),
Jack Sheldon (trumpet), Bob Enevoldsen (valve trombone #1), Art Pepper (alto sax),
Bill Perkins (tenor sax), Red Mitchell (bass), Shelly Manne (drums).
[Unidentified string section, clarinet and oboe]
#4, #9
Art Farmer (trumpet), Bob Enevoldsen (valve trombone), Art Pepper (alto sax),
Gerry Mulligan (baritone sax), Russ Freeman (piano), Buddy Clark (bass), Dave Bailey (drums).
#2, #5, #7, #11
André Previn (piano), Red Mitchell (bass), Shelly Manne (drums), Carmen McRae (vocals #5).
#12
Jack Sheldon (trumpet), Art Pepper (alto sax),
Russ Freeman (piano), Red Mitchell (bass), Shelly Manne (drums).
Recorded at MGM Studios, Culver City, California,
September 2, 1959 (#2), January 11, 1960 (#5, #7, #8, #9, #11),
January12, 1960 (#1, #3, #4, #6,#10), and February 3, 1960 (#12)
