CD-Charts Position 1
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A Coney Island of the Mind

by: Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Release Date April 01, 2002


Ferlinghetti continues the great tradition of American spoken poetry. The use of jazz as an accompaniment is fairly recent idea though Vachel Lindsay had a go decades past with his Daniel Jazz poem using 'Dixie' and 'Alexander's Ragtime Band'. The use of jazz on this recording seems a bit hit and miss to me. It certainly seems to have been recorded as background rather than an equal to Ferlinghetti's reading. I'm quite happy with this as I basically bought the CD to hear his reading of 'A Coney Island of the Mind' and I'm certainly not disappointed. His voice is now wonderfully mature and he easily slips into different accents and word pronunciations.

Apart from the complete Coney Island the other ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

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Poetry Readings in the Cellar

by: Kenneth Rexroth, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Cellar Jazz Quintet

Release Date November 09, 2004
This CD presents a twenty minute poem by Kenneth Rexroth called Thou Shalt not Kill and three of Lawrence Ferlinghetti poems Autobiography, The Statue of St Francis and the Junkman's Obligato. Both readings are accompanied by a live jazz band that provides atmospheric sounds but do not dominate or drown out the sound of the poets reading. The diction of both poets is clear and the beat of the verse can be heard throughout the CD. Ferlinghetti's performance is the stronger of the two as he provides more variety in reading three poems. At just over twenty minutes long Rexroth's poem repeats itself too much to remain interesting throughout and the attention wanders.I was surprised how similar both performances are to Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other ... Read More: