Produced in association with the Centre Pompidou at the time of last summer's Beat Generation exhibition in Paris, this 3CD set traces the period of the Hep Cats, Hipsters & Beatniks and their intersecting musical and hedonistic thrills and spills. There was a similar if shorter CD collection titled Jazz of the Beat Generation that was curated in 2003 for Jazz FM Records by the late Jazzwise writer Keith Shadwick. CD1 is titled Hep Cats (1936-48), defined by French polymath Bruno Blum as ‘connoisseurs’ in his detailed, informative 32-page liner notes. The collection has Stuff Smith “dreaming of reefers five-feet long” and more comedic verse from Slim Gaillard through to Billie Holiday and Dexter Gordon. CD2 Hipsters (1949-60) includes the wailing R&B and proto-rock'n'roll of Cootie Williams, Bobby Troup and Bo Diddley, as well as contrasting ‘Birth of the Cool’ sounds from the likes of Miles and the unique Konitz-Marsh combination. Tying it all up is Disc 3, Beatniks (1958-1962), on which most of the spoken word, jive talk and jazz-poetry performances are featured. Highlights include a Jack Kerouac call-and-response with saxophonist Al Cohn and a 1959 TV show interview and reading from the boho bard himself. Other genuine cultural artefacts include Allen Ginsberg's reading of ‘Howl’, Phillipa Fallon's jive talkin' ‘High School Drag’, Lenny Bruce's spitting out ‘Psychopathia Sexualis’, and a young Bob Dylan ready to step into the jazz cat's beatnik sandals with his ‘Talkin’ New York’ (1961). You can hear all this and more in this entirely riveting, well-curated three-disc volume.