In the spring of 1958, just a few weeks after cutting
Poetry for the Beat Generation, producer
Bob Thiele suggested making a second album -- quite a daring notion, considering that the first album would prove so controversial that it wouldn't reach the public for a year -- and
Jack Kerouac agreed. Instead of pianist
Steve Allen, however,
Kerouac insisted that he be accompanied this time by two good friends, tenor saxmen
Al Cohn and
Zoot Sims. With
Cohn doubling on piano, the resulting
Blues and Haikus is a stunning duet between speaker and saxmen, working spontaneously in this peculiar mix of jazz and voice, in which the saxmen do get their solo spots around
Kerouac's work. There's much more of a sense on this album of a conscious interaction here between
Kerouac and his accompanists, and the album is more arch but also more intense and more imposing than its predecessor. [Reissued as part of Rhino's
Jack Kerouac Collection with 16 minutes of outtakes.]