from ‘Poetry And Jazz At The Blackhawk’ LP (1959 – Fantasy Records 7008) Kenneth Rexroth – poetry backed by the Chamber Jazz Sextet: Allyn Ferguson: piano, electric piano, french horn, percussion Frank Leal: alto saxophone, bass clarinet Modesto Briseno: tenor & baritone saxophones, clarinet Robert Wilson: trumpet, percussion Fred Dutton: bass, bassoon, contra-bassoon Tom Reynolds: drums, tympani

Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982) “…Love [is the] key to truly realizing one’s existence.” Kenneth Rexroth (1) Born in South Bend, Indiana December 22, 1905, Kenneth Rexroth’s mother died in 1916. His father died in 1918. His mother had home schooled him. His father was a pharmaceutical salesperson, and drank heavily. Rexroth moved in with his aunt after his parent’s deaths. He began publishing when he was fifteen. After being expelled from High School, Kenneth Rexroth educated himself by attending literary salons. He hitchhiked across the country at nineteen working odd jobs: he worked as a reporter, a soda jerk, a wrestler, a clerk and as a forest service trail hand. He explored Mexico and South America and then spent a week in Paris where he met avant-garde artists including Tristan Tzara. He began corresponding with Ezra Pound George Oppen and Louis Zukofsky in the 1930’s. In the 1940’s Rexroth was promoting other poets on his radio program including LeRoi Jones, Philip Whalen and Denise Levertov. Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder were some of the poets who attended a weekly salon he hosted during these years. These weekly meetings set the ground for the San Francisco renaissance. He registered as a conscientious objector during World War II, and served as a psychiatric orderly. He also helped Japanese American internees. (2) Rexroth emceed the Six Gallery reading on October 7, 1955 where Ginsberg read “Howl.” After, he was a defense witness at Ginsberg’s …

Reading from The Place That Inhabits Us at Diesel, A Bookstore, in Oakland, CA, Sunday, July 11, 2010.