Upbeat: Nine Lives of a Musical Cat

"Upbeat: Nine Live of a Musical Cat" is a wonderful experience. Reading Amram's words is just like getting the chance to sit down and talk with him one on one. It's a treat to learn about all of David's didactic philosophies, which stream through to the reader in the narrative about his travels. His emphasis on the correlation of all arts, this idea of writing and music going hand in hand, is an important one. David's cool approach to dealing with unsavory pretentiousness is one we should all take a lesson from. In an age of overspecialization, Amram tells us of a lesson his history teacher taught him, about how we should not have to "...be defined solely by what we all have to do in our daily lives to pay our rent." It would be nice if the world could take on half of Amram's ideologies, of inclusion, how we are all educators/students and to think about what we give up in the name of "progress." Amram takes us on a journey to meet the people he has met and worked with, from Ron Whitehead to Leonard Bernstein. Amram takes us overseas to Africa and down south to Cuba. A true renisance man that has something to offer everyone and "Upbeat: Nine Live of a Musical Cat" is your ticket. ~John J. Petrolino III: October 27, 2008 Author of Galleria: A collection of poetry and the short story "Three Lonesome Travelers"

I heard David Amram do an on the spot rap for one of our public radio jazz stations, but was not aware of how multi-talented this man was in all music genres. His stories of making music with Native American, symphonic, jazz, world, rap and other musical groups was fascinating reading. Five Stars!!!!