An explanation of my Jazz cafe paintings ( with Jack Kerouac quote)
By Carl Ristaino
Through-out the years I have created a series of paintings and drawings on this theme.
Each one influencing the last one, in a continuous evolution.
I spent a good part of my youth in smoky bars and dank basements listening to bands of all types,
under the influence of alcohol among other things.
I think one can go out an experience something in the moment of the music
that can not be translated on film or recorded with audio.
I have been painting this painting all my life in different forms.
I've been trying to capture that blurry memory,
that untranslatable feel that is there and then gone.
It's a flow, it's a vibe, and the whole room is moving with it.
I believe the great Jack Kerouac said it best…
"...now it's jazz, the place is roaring, all beautiful girls in there,
one mad brunette at the bar drunk with her boys - one strange chick I remember from somewhere,
wearing a simple skirt with pockets, her hands in there, short haircut, slouched, talking to everybody -
Up and down the stairs they come - the bartenders are the regular brand of Jack,
and the heavenly drummer who looks up in the sky with blue eyes,
with a beard, is wailing beer-caps of bottles and jamming on the cash register and everything is going to the beat
-- it's the beat generation, it's beat. It's the beat to keep, it's the beat of the heart,
it's being beat and down in the world and like old-time lowdown and
like in ancient civilizations the slave boatmen rowing galleys to a beat and servants spinning pottery to a beat...."
