MICHAEL McCLURE & RAY MANZAREK

McClure & Manzarek News

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Upcoming

Poetry and Jazz in British Columbia, October 2017

Michael McClure’s poetry collection, Persian Pony, has just been published by Ekstasis Editions. He’s in British Columbia this week for a reading and performance.

persian pony - michael mcclure

Poetry Reading

Wednesday, October 18, 2017
7:30pm
Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre
515 Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC Canada
FREE EVENT — more info

Poetry and Jazz Performance

Saturday, October 21, 2017
7:30pm
w/musicians Carol Ann Sokoloff & Patrick Boyle
The Roxy Theatre, 2657 Quadra St
Victoria, BC Canada
info & tickets: EkstasisEditions.com

Group Spirit with Toni Basil & Michael McClure

Related Exhibition Bruce Conner, Part of Bruce Conner: I AM/I AM NOT

Thursday, October 27th, 7p.m.

SFMOMA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third St, San Francisco, CA 94103
details & tickets:
https://www.sfmoma.org/event/group-spirit-toni-basil-and-michael-mcclure/

AND onward…

Mephistos and Other Poems

Celebrating the release of his book of new poetry

Thursday, November 17th, 7:00 pm

CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE
261 Columbus at Broadway
San Francisco, CA
free event, details: http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100617090&fa=events

Tuesday, December 6th, 7:30 pm

MOE’S BOOKS
2476 Telegraph Ave
Berkeley, CA
free event, for more info: (510) 849-2087

Sunday, February 5th, 3:00 pm

DIESEL BOOKS
5433 College Ave
Oakland, CA
free event, for more info: (510) 653-9965 events@dieselbookstore.com

Come to the Bay Area Book Festival…

MICHAEL McCLURE &
GEORGE BROOKS on sax

FREE CONCERT – POETRY & JAZZ

Sunday, June 7, 2015

12 pm – 12:50 pm
The Brower Center, in Goldman Theatre
2150 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94704

Past News

MICHAEL McCLURE: FREE VERSE

IF YOU’RE IN MINNEAPOLIS ON MAY DAY, JOIN US AT THE WALKER ART CENTER!

Michael McClure
photo by Garrett Caples

May 1, 2014, 7pm

Walker Art Center
Walker Cinema

Free tickets available
at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk from 6 pm

Join us for a May Day extravaganza as poet Michael McClure unleashes a mighty roar! A central figure of the Beat Generation, he has enchanted audiences through his poetry, plays, and performances for nearly six decades and has collaborated with artists such as Wallace Berman, Bruce Conner, and Ray Manzarek. McClure’s poetry is heavily infused with an awareness of nature, especially the animal consciousness that lies dormant in mankind. Don’t miss this special event with a living legend.

Free Verse is co-presented by Rain Taxi Review of Books.

GHOST TANTRAS
Wednesday, November 20th, 2013, 7:00 pm

San Francisco, CA: City Lights Bookstore

City Lights will host Michael McClure celebrating the publication of his Ghost Tantras!

City Lights is located at 261 Columbus Avenue @ Broadway in San Francisco’s North Beach.

GHOST TANTRAS published by City Lights

Ghost Tantras by Michael McClure
Originally self-published in 1964 and long out of print, Ghost Tantras is one of McClure’s signature works, a book mostly written in “beast language.” A mix of lyrical, guttural and laryngeal sound, lion roars, and a touch of detonated dada, this is one of his best-known but least available books, a deep well from which decades of poetry have drawn.

McClure’s inspiration has always been the animal consciousness that still lives in mankind, and he has had a consistent message: “When a man does not admit that he is an animal, he is less than an animal.” Ghost Tantras is his original and singular manifesto for a poetry that relies not on images and pictures, but on muscular, sensual, energetic sound.

Purchase Ghost Tantras here.

YOU are cordially invited to the

Opening Party and Screening

 

BERKELEY VIDEO AND FILM

FESTIVAL

 

EAST BAY MEDIA CENTER

1939 Addison Street
(downtown Berkeley, near the Berkeley Rep)

 

Friday Oct 25th

PARTY starts at 6:15 pm

RSVP: amy@amyevansmcclure.com
(to ensure there’ll be plentiful wine and munchies)

 

SCREENING starts at 7:15 pm

PURCHASE TICKETS EARLY

Seating is limited in this lovely, intimate theatre
www.berkeleyvideofilmfest.org
510-843-3699

 

ABSTRACT ALCHEMIST OF FLESH, a 55-minute documentary of the poetry and life and adventures with lions of MICHAEL McCLURE — with cameos by Allen Ginsberg, Dennis Hopper, Peter Coyote, Ray Manzarek and others, directed and filmed by Colin Still, BBC filmmaker.

ONE NIGHT AT THE ARISTO, based on a story by WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS, by prize-winning British director and filmmaker, Nic Saunders.

For any who are desperate for recent Andy Warhol gossip, a ten-minute film, THE PARTY IN TAYLOR MEAD’S KITCHEN by Jeffrey Wengrofsy.

At 9:20 pm, the evening will close with the four-minute art film MOMENT OF THE MAKING featuring the painted sculpture of Amy Evans McClure, a film by San Francisco’s Jesse Block.

Rob Wasserman • Michael McClure • Jay Lane

New Music!

Thursday, September 12th • 8:00 p.m.

Sweetwater Music Hall

19 Corte Madera Ave., Mill Valley, CA 94941
Limited Seating • Box Office 415-388-1100

http://sweetwatermusichall.inticketing.com/events/336468

Rob Wasserman, Michael McClure, and Jay Lane

“Rob Wasserman was performing with Lou Reed — I was knocked out. Soon Rob and I were writing songs together, sometimes at Bob Weir’s place with Rob’s genius-drummer friend, Jay Lane. Now the 3 of us are linking up again at the Sweetwater.” — Michael McClure

PERFORMANCE:

George Brooks, saxophone

Michael McClure, poetry

Rob Wasserman, bass

Jazz and Poetry performance

Friday, July 26, 2013

2 sets: 6:30 pm & 7:45 pm

deYoung Museum of San Francisco

currently showing: Richard Diebenkorn, The Berkeley Years, 1953–1966

1st ANNUAL
SAN FRANCISCO JAZZ POETRY FESTIVAL

Saturday, JUNE 8

2 shows, 7:30 & 9:00

AL YOUNG with bass

MICHAEL McCLURE
with GEORGE BROOKS on sax

SFJAZZ Laureate ISHMAEL REED with piano

SFJAZZ Center, Joe Henderson Lab
201 Franklin St, San Francisco

Limited seating! For more information and tickets:
www.sfjazz.org

 

THE BIG MIX
at Sweetwater Music Hall
Mill Valley, CA
November 14, 2012

BIG MIX

What do you get if you take Beat icon Michael McClure (who penned Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz”), add Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Famer Ray Manzarek (Doors keyboardist), stir in jazz/Indian fusion saxophonist and composer George Brooks (Etta James, Summit, Bombay Jazz), infuse with legendary bassist Kai Eckhardt (John McGlaughlin, Garaj Mahal, Zeitgeist), and shake it all up with drummer Jay Lane (Primus, Bob Weir & Ratdog)?

Big Mix serves up the best of contemporary musical artistry. Their unique blend has been called “Dharma Boogie at Its Best”, and the group dazzles tonight with an even bigger mix of jazz, poetry, and rock in honor of Michael McClure’s birthday and the release of McClure and Manzarek’s newest CD, The Piano Poems: Live From San Francisco.

You are invited to be part of this awesome Big Birthday Bash (which includes some very special surprise guests)!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Sweetwater Music Hall

19 Corte Madera Avenue
Mill Valley, CA
US 94941

BUY TICKETS HERE

Event Information:
415-388-3850

 

Released August 14, 2012!

MICHAEL McCLURE & RAY MANZAREK

THE PIANO POEMS: LIVE FROM SAN FRANCISCO


pianopoems

A collaboration between Ray Manzarek and Michael McClure, this live performance, recorded at an old church, features both new and older poems, with McClure’s words and Manzarek’s jazz piano.

On a cold, foggy night in San Francisco after a great Japanese meal, Manzarek and I stepped onto the stage and there were sparks of consciousness – the stage was on fire with poems and piano Improvisations. The symbiosis and the synergy made lights. Then Larry Kassin stepped up to join us with his jazz flute and Lou Judson was recording.

This is a live album with its heart still beating – no tricks, gimmicks, or second takes. We are bringing together my poetry and Ray’s improvisations that shape my word-sounds into richer meanings: Piano Poems.

There’s no way to be without a politics or an antipolitics, no way to be without art, without anger and generosity, without laughter and kindness.

That’s the edge we’re whetting on this album.

— Michael McClure

The Piano Poems: Live From San Francisco was released on Tuesday, August 14, 2012. It’s available both as a CD and as an MP3 download. See below for a link to listen to tracks.

The Piano Poems: Live From San Francisco – CD (at Oglio Records)

The Piano Poems: Live From San Francisco – Listen to tracks / Buy MP3 or CD (Amazon)

Piano Poems: Live from San Francisco – MP3 (on iTunes)

The JazzSchool of Berkeley

Is Offering a Rare Workshop by

GEORGE
BROOKS
&
MICHAEL
Mc CLURE

Jazz & Poetry: The Craft of Collaboration

SATURDAY, JULY 7th, 2012, 3:15 pm

The JazzSchool – 2087 Addison St. Berkeley, CA

This workshop offers an opportunity for musicians and poets to explore the long, rich history of music and spoken word with the guidance of Beat poet / playwright Michael McClure and saxophonist/composer George Brooks.

They will perform examples from their work together and encourage participants to perform together during the workshop. Bring your instruments and poems.

For more information:
http://jazzschool.org/event/jazz-and-poetry-the-craft-of-collaboration/

Michael McClure & George Brooks
If you happen to be in Los Angeles next week . . .

October 20, 2011 – Thursday, 7:30 PM

MICHAEL McCLURE

READING WITH

MICHAEL C. FORD

BEYOND BAROQUE Literary/Arts Center
www.beyondbaroque.org
681 Venice Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 822-3006
Admission $7, students/seniors/children $5,
members FREE

Tuesday, August 30
8:00 pm

BIG MIX:
RAY MANZAREK, MICHAEL McCLURE
GEORGE BROOKS, KAI ECKHARDT & JAY LANE

Dharma Boogie at its Best!

YOSHI’S JAZZ CLUB
510 Embarcadero West, Oakland, CA
$20
www.yoshis.com

Sunday, August 7
3:00 pm

“FLY-BY FROM THE REALMS OF BURNING GOLD”
DIANE DI PRIMA and MICHAEL McCLURE read/exchange their poems

MYTHOS FINE ART
1747 Solano Ave. Berkeley, CA 94707
free event
www.mythosfineart.com
510-528-4291

Wednesday, August 10
8:00pm

BIG MIX:
RAY MANZAREK, MICHAEL McCLURE
GEORGE BROOKS, KAI ECKHARDT & JAY LANE

Dharma Boogie at its Best!

THROCKMORTON THEATRE
142 Throckmorton Ave. Mill Valley, CA
$24 – $27
To buy tickets call 415.383.9600 or
www.throckmortontheatre.com

Saturday, August 13
8:00 pm

The Foundation of the Sacred Stream presents:
MICHAEL McCLURE and saxaphonist GEORGE BROOKS
Jazz, Poetry and deepening of consciousness!

In a private home, St. Francis Woods near Glen Park, San Francisco
$40 Contribution
Reception after the concert, wine and dessert included
To reserve: info@sacredstream.org (please put ?Salon’ in subject line)

Two seminal poets and dear friends spend an evening reading
OUT LOUD and OUTSPOKEN!

Michael McClure and Jerome Rothenberg

Tuesday, June 7, 2011, 7:00 p.m.

CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE

261 Columbus Avenue at Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
phone: (415) 362-8193

Jerome Rothenberg celebrates the release of three new books:

For Gematria Complete (from Marick Press)
For Concealments & Caprichos (from Black Widow Press)
For Retrievals: Uncollected & New Poems (from Junction Press)

Michael McClure celebrates two recent books:

Of Indigo and Saffron: Selected and New Poems (from University of California Press)
Mysteriosos (from New Directions)

Michael McClure is a poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. As one of those who read at the legendary 6 Gallery reading, he is considered one of the movers and shakers of the Beat Generation. He is the author of numerous books, his most recent two being a selected poems called Of Indigo and Saffron, brilliantly edited by poet Leslie Scalapino, and a collection of poetry called Mysteriosos and Other Poems. He has collaborated with several artists and musicians including Terry Riley, their collaborative CD is I Like Your Eyes Liberty, and Ray Manzarek of The Doors, with whom a new CD is in the works, Live from San Francisco.

Jerome Rothenberg is an internationally known American poet, translator, editor, and anthologist who is noted for his work in ethnopeotics and poetry performance. He has published over seventy books of poetry, translation, and assemblage. He is the founder of Hawk’s Well Press and the magazines Poems from the Floating World and some/thing (the latter with David Antin.) He has taught at the State University of New York and University of California, San Diego. He recently published volume three of Poems for the Millennium, co-edited with Jeffrey C. Robinson as a nineteenth-century prequel to the first two volumes in the series.

MICHAEL McCLURE: Reading & Signing
Thursday, February 24, 2011, 7:00 pm

Michael McClure - Of Indigo and Saffron

DIESEL BOOKSTORE
5433 College Avenue, Oakland, CA 94618
510-653-9965
Get more details on Diesel Bookstore’s website.

Michael McClure will be reading from – and signing – the newly-published book, Of Indigo and Saffron: New and Selected Poems.

Poet MICHAEL McCLURE
in Vancouver, BC – Friday, February 11, 2011

McClure’s Vancouver appearance comes on the occasion of the publication of
Of Indigo and Saffron: New and Selected Poems (U. of California Press), which
follows closely the 2010 publication of Mysteriosos and Other Poems (New
Directions). Abstract Alchemist of Flesh, a fifty-five minute documentary film
of Michael McClure, with cameos of Dennis Hopper, Ray Manzarek, and Allen
Ginsberg, is soon to be released.

Michael McClure will be making two appearances on Friday, February 11, 2011:

2:00pm
Screening of new documentary film,
Abstract Alchemist of Flesh, presented by McClure
Room 7200
WAC Bennett Library
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6

8:00pm*
Reading from his works (Introduced by George Stanley)
Room 1700 (Labatt’s Hall)
SFU Vancouver – Harbour Centre
515 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3

These events are presented by SFU Library and SFU English Department and co-sponsored by West Coast Line Magazine and The Capilano Review
GRAHHR!

* Events are free but seating is limited to the evening reading. Please RSVP to library@sfu.ca for the 8pm reading.

For more information contact:
Tony Power at
778.782.6676 or power@sfu.ca lib.sfu.ca/special-collections

Download the PDF flyer for this event here.

MICHAEL McCLURE
Reading in Victoria, BC, February 8-9, 2011

Please the image to view it larger.

Michael McClure - Victoria BC

MICHAEL McCLURE
Reading at MOE’S BOOKS

Tuesday, February 1, 2011, 7:30 P.M.
2476 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley CA 94704
phone: 510-849-2087

Download the flyer for this event.

Michael McClure will be reading from the newly-published book, Of Indigo and Saffron: New and Selected Poems. Read more about the book here.

Michael McClure
Reading at City Lights Bookstore

Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 7:00 P.M.
261 Columbus Avenue at Broadway,
San Francisco, CA 94133
phone: (415) 362-8193

Michael McClure will be reading from the newly-published book, Of Indigo and Saffron: New and Selected Poems. For more about the book, click here.

The Holloway Series in Poetry at UC Berkeley Presents:

MICHAEL McCLURE

with Elizabeth Marie Young

Tuesday, October 14

at 6:30 p.m.
in the Maude Fife Room of Wheeler Hall
Holloway Series in Poetry website

MICHAEL McCLURE is a Bay Area countercultural icon whose numerous works include Dark Brown, Ghost Tantras (which he famously read to the lions at the San Francisco Zoo), the play The Beard, albums with Ray Manzarek, one-time pianist with the Doors, and with Terry Riley, a repubication of The Booobus and the Bunnyduck, a 1957 children’s book made with the artist Jess, and, most recently, a collection of poems called Rain Mirror.

ELIZABETH MARIE YOUNG This summer, Elizabeth Marie Young’s full-length book, Aim Straight at the Fountain and Press Vaporize, won the Motherwell Prize from Fence Books (it will come out in 2009), and Omahrahu Prss published a chapbook of her Sonnets. She is finishing her PhD in Comparative Literature in Berkeley, and will join the Classical Studies Department at Wellesley College in January.

MICHAEL McCLURE
in CHICAGO

POETRY READING
at 7:00 p.m.
OCTOBER 11, 2008

The Beat Generation Symposium
October 10-11, 2008
Columbia College, Chicago
All events are in the Film Row Theater
1104 South Wabash Avenue (8th Floor)

“REBEL ROAR:
THE SOUND OF MICHAEL McCLURE”

Friday, SEPTEMBER 26
Berkeley Video & Film Festival ’08
LANDMARK SHATTUCK CINEMA
2230 SHATTUCK AVENUE · DOWNTOWN BERKELEY

Box Office: 510.464.5980
Festival Information: 510.843.3699
www.berkeleyvideofilmfest.org

Screenings Start at 7:30pm Friday

The global premiere of “REBEL ROAR: The Sound of Michael McClure,” a short art documentary of the poet and playwright, is produced by Kurt Hemmer and Tom Knoff. “Rebel Roar” advances the cause of Beat and Hip and is an antidote to the rulers.

After the screening, McClure and Hemmer will answer questions.

Following the documentary is Tao Ruspoli’s feature “FIX” in its Bay Area premiere, a scorching and gritty L.A. adventure directed by the grandson of Michelangelo Antonioni. Q & A with Tao Ruspoli after the film. The evening begins at 7:30 with several short experimental films by a variety of award-winning filmmakers.

Please join

MICHAEL McCLURE & JOHN BRANDI

Tuesday, September 9
7:30 pm
MOE’S BOOKS
2476 Telegraph Avenue

Berkeley CA 94704
510-849-2087
www.moesbooks.com

JOHN BRANDI is a poet, writer, artist, and author of thirty-eight books of poetry and nonfiction. He will read from his new book, FACING HIGH WATER. From the Himalayas, Angkor Wat, the barrios of Old Havana, the highlands of Chiapas, and the streets of New York, Brandi’s poems lead us toward rapport with the natural world and our own inner landscapes.
“These poems shine with a Taoist sensibility and the wisdom and simplicity of self. John Brandi, as a traveler throughout Asia and the Americas, gives us the artist’s heightened sensitivity and clarity of detail; and poems of rare precision, charm and truth.” — Joanne Kyger, author of About Now

MICHAEL McCLURE is the poet, playright, songwriter, and novelist who first gained fame as one of the five poets who read at the infamous San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955. This summer he performed and spoke at the Prague International Writers’ Festival and the Casa della poesia in Salerno, Italy. He’ll be reading from his soon-to-be-published MYSTERIOSOS (from New Directions), and other new poems.

BIG MIX:

Michael McClure,
Ray Manzarek,

George Brooks,
Rob Wasserman,
& Jay Lane

Wednesday, May 7, 2008
2 shows – 8pm & 10pm

YOSHI’S San Francisco
1330 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
415.655.5575

sf.yoshis.com/sf/jazzclub

Click here for tickets.
Big Mix

Original Beat icon Michael McClure, who penned Janis Joplin’s immortal “Mercedes Benz,” and Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who created one of rock’s most memorable instrumental lines (think “Light My Fire”), join forces with saxophonist George Brooks (Summit, Bombay Jazz, Etta James), bassist Rob Wasserman (Lou Reed, Aaron Neville, Rickey Lee Jones), and drummer Jay Lane (Charlie Hunter, Bob Weir) for a evening of sophisticated anti-politics, elegant improvisation, American haiku, and jazz-drenched dharma boogie.

(This past summer BIG MIX took the stage in Golden Gate Park for the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love, thrilling the crowd of 80,000 with their performance of “The God I Worship Is a Lion,” which was first performed at the Human Be-In in 1967.)

Download the flyer for this event.

MICHAEL McCLURE and LOU ROWAN

Thursday · MARCH 6, 2008 · 7:30 p.m.
THE BEAT MUSEUM
540 Broadway, near Columbus
San Francisco
info: 800-537-6822

LOU ROWAN, editor of the stunning review GOLDEN HANDCUFFS, reads from MY LAST DAYS, his freshly published, fabulous, and scurrilous autobiography of Superman.

Poet & playwright MICHAEL McCLURE reads from new manuscripts of MYSTERIOSOS, and MUSHROOM MOUNTAINS; and growls beast language poems from GHOST TANTRAS.

* * * light, life, grahhrr… * * *

DIANE di PRIMA & MICHAEL McCLURE

A POETRY READING
at Moe’s Books

 

MONDAY JULY 9th 7:30pm

 

MOE’S BOOKS
2476 Telegraph
Berkeley

 

* * *
L
LIGHT
F
E
* * *
Clay Canvas by Amy Evans McClure
Something of India: A Time Morph by Michael McClure
with
Glimmers of India: Clay Canvases by Amy Evans McClure
has just been published at BIG BRIDGE.
Terry Riley
Composer Terry Riley and Michael McClure are wrapping up a CD of poems from PLUM STONES and from Michael’s “beast language” poems in GHOST TANTRAS. It will be released in Spring 2004.

Terry Riley will star at the San Francisco Jazz Festival when the Kronos Quartet performs the premiere of his new piece SUN RINGS. October 24 & 25.

The Fall 2003 issue of Threepenny Review features Michael McClure’s “Seven Things About Kenneth Rexroth.” It’s available from The Threepenny Review, P.O. Box 9131, Berkeley, California 94709. Price is $7 + $5 shipping. Or, check your local bookstore.
Michael McClure’s “Suite for John Ashbery” has been published in SAL MIMEO #3.

SAL MIMEO is available from Larry Fagin, 437 E 12th St. #18, New York, NY, 10009

Rod Phillips’ book, MICHAEL McCLURE, has just been published by Boise State University, as the latest in their Western Writers Series. This critical exploration of Michael McClure’s oeuvre includes biographical information & context interwoven through Phillips’ thoughtful examinations of McClure’s books.

Phillips is also the author of FOREST BEATNIKS & URBAN THOREAUS.

Michael McClure’s new collection of poems, PLUM STONES: CARTOONS OF NO HEAVEN was reviewed by John Aiello in the August issue of the online magazine, The Electric Review.

Love Her Madly DVD

Ray’s movie, Love Her Madly, has just been released on DVD!

The Doors 21st Century

We’ve gathered a few recent reviews of The Doors concerts:
Wallingford, Connecticut
Chicago, Illinois

The Doors 21st Century

Currently there are a number of concerts sheduled for 2003. You can click on any of the venue names for more information.

Dec 4 Benidorm, Spain The Benidorm Bullring
Dec 6 & 7 Lisbon, Portugal Pavilhao Atlantico
Dec 9 Paris, France Le Zenith
Dec 11 London, England Wembley Arena
Dec 13 Brussels, Belgium Forest National
Dec 14 Birmingham, England National Indoor Arena
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