Although it took time to get the project off the ground, the result was the 1959 LP Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation, described by Verve as a “History of Bop.”
Norman Granz, the celebrated music promoter and entrepreneur who founded the famed “Jazz at Philharmonic” concert series and launched Verve Records, watched Kerouac perform at the Village Vanguard in December 1957 and offered the writer a three-record deal with Verve. Although it took time to get the project off the ground, the result was the 1959 LP Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation, described by Verve as a “History of Bop.” The album was produced by Bill Randle, a DJ who championed Elvis Presley at the start of his career and had played a large number of Black jazz artists on his Detroit WJLB radio show, The Interracial Goodwill Hour, in an era of racial segregation.