Whitney Balliett's Books

American Musicians II

Seventy-One Portraits in Jazz

By: Whitney Balliett

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American Musicians II

Seventy-One Portraits in Jazz

By: Whitney Balliett

All of the jazz profiles Whitney Balliett wrote for the New Yorker

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Page Count

538

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1578068347

ISBN 13

9781578068340

American Singers

Twenty-Seven Portraits in Song

By: Whitney Balliett

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American Singers

Twenty-Seven Portraits in Song

By: Whitney Balliett

A complete collection of profiles on singers that Balliett wrote for the New Yorker

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Page Count

262

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1578068355

ISBN 13

9781578068357

Collected Works

A Journal of Jazz 1954-2001

By: Whitney Balliett

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Collected Works

A Journal of Jazz 1954-2001

By: Whitney Balliett

Jazz critic for The New Yorker since 1957 and the author of some fifteen books, Whitney Balliett has spent a lifetime listening to and writing about jazz. "All first-rate criticism," he once wrote in a review, "first defines what we are confronting." He could as easily have been describing his own work. For nearly half a century, Balliett has been telling us, in his widely acclaimed pitch-perfect prose, what we are confronting when we listen to America's greatest—and perhaps only original—musical form. Collected Works: A Journal of Jazz 1954-2001 is a monumental achievement, capturing the full range and register of the jazz scene, from the very first Newport Jazz Festival to recent performances (in clubs and on CDs) by a rising generation of musicians. Here are definitive portraits of such major figures as Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Django Reinhardt, Martha Raye, Buddy Rich, Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holliday, Art Tatum, Bessie Smith, and Earl Hines—a list that barely scratches the surface. Generations of readers have learned to listen to the music with Balliett's graceful guidance. For five decades he has captured those moments during which jazz history is made. Though Balliett's knowledge is an encyclopedic treasure, he has always written as if he were listening for the first time. Since its beginnings in New Orleans at the turn of the century, jazz has been restlessly and relentlessly evolving. This is an art form based on improvising, experimenting, shapeshifting—a constant work in progress of sounds and tonal shades, from swing and Dixieland, through boogie-woogie, bebop, and hard bop, to the "new thing," free jazz, abstract jazz, and atonal jazz. Yet, in all its forms, the music is forever sustained by what Balliett calls a "secret emotional center," an "aural elixir" that "reveals itself when an improvised phrase or an entire solo or even a complete number catches you by surprise." Balliett's celebrated essays invariably capture the so-called "sound of surprise"—and then share this sound with general readers, music students, jazz lovers, and popular American culture buffs everywhere. As The Los Angeles Times Book Review has observed, "Few people can write as well about anything as Balliett writes about jazz.

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Page Count

892

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

0312270089

ISBN 13

9780312270087

New York Voices

Fourteen Portraits

By: Whitney Balliett

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New York Voices

Fourteen Portraits

By: Whitney Balliett

Profiles of the artists, music makers, and movers and shakers who created New York City's vibrant cultural landscape

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Page Count

236

Publisher

Gulf Professional Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1578068363

ISBN 13

9781578068364

American Musicians

56 Portraits in Jazz

By: Whitney Balliett

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American Musicians

56 Portraits in Jazz

By: Whitney Balliett

American Musicians, Whitney Balliett's long-awaited "big book," contains a wealth of jazz profiles he has written for The New Yorker during the past twenty-seven years. He gives us, in this spectacular volume, his famous early portraits of Pee Wee Russell, Red Allen, Earl Hines, and Mary Lou Williams, written in their brilliant twilight years; his reconstructions of the lives of such legends as Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins, Jack Teagarden, Zoot Sims, and Sidney Catlett; his brief but indelible glimpses into the daily (or nocturnal) lives of Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus; and his vivid depictions of such on-the-scene masters as Jim Hall, Ornette Coleman, Stéphane Grappelli, Elvin Jones, Art Farmer, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Tommy Flanagan. He also includes his thoughts on such lesser known but invaluable players as Art Hodes, Jabbo Smith, Joe Wilder, Warne Marsh, Gene Bertoncini, and Joe Bushkin. American Musicians is at once a history of jazz, a biographical encyclopedia of many of its most important performers, and a model of American prose.

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Page Count

415

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195060881

ISBN 13

9780195060881

Collected Works

A Journal of Jazz 1954-2001

By: Whitney Balliett

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Collected Works

A Journal of Jazz 1954-2001

By: Whitney Balliett

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Page Count

892

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

0312270089

ISBN 13

9780312270087

American Musicians II

Seventy-One Portraits in Jazz

By: Whitney Balliett

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American Musicians II

Seventy-One Portraits in Jazz

By: Whitney Balliett

All of the jazz profiles Whitney Balliett wrote for the New Yorker

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Age

Page Count

538

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1578068347

ISBN 13

9781578068340

American Singers

Twenty-Seven Portraits in Song

By: Whitney Balliett

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American Singers

Twenty-Seven Portraits in Song

By: Whitney Balliett

A complete collection of profiles on singers that Balliett wrote for the New Yorker

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Page Count

262

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1578068355

ISBN 13

9781578068357

Goodbyes and Other Messages

A Journal of Jazz, 1981-1990

By: Whitney Balliett

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Goodbyes and Other Messages

A Journal of Jazz, 1981-1990

By: Whitney Balliett

Balliett, longtime jazz critic for The New Yorker, has an uncanny ability to characterize music in words....Each essay is written in language as rich and inventive as the music itself"--Publishers Weekly. "A fine 14th book from Balliett....If this is it, Balliett leaves in top form and we are all in his debt"--Kirkus Reviews. In this new collection of jazz writing, Whitney provides rich summations of giants like Benny Goodman, Thelonious Monk, Count Basie, and Sarah Vaughan while offering penetrating assessments of new artists as diverse as Warren Vache, Michel Petrucianni, and Wynton Marsalis. Balliett also identifies important issues: the proliferation of festivals, the profusion of jazz biographies, the outpouring of complete collections of jazz's early recording artists, and the debatable success of new performers devoted to reviving past styles. As always, Balliett's subjects are as piquant as his style is delightful.

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Page Count

312

Publisher

New York : Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

019503757X

ISBN 13

9780195037579

Jelly Roll, Jabbo, and Fats

19 Portraits in Jazz

By: Whitney Balliett

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Jelly Roll, Jabbo, and Fats

19 Portraits in Jazz

By: Whitney Balliett

Legends and semi-legends, some living, some not, walk easily and vividly through Balliett's collection of jazz portraits. With his usual elegance and wit, he recreates the personalities and the music of such greats as Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Ellis Larkins, Ornette Coleman and others. Balliett, according to a New York musician, is the "Tiffany of jazz writers." He is also the only music writr who has ever been able to make his readers hear what he hears, who makes music three-dimensional on the page.

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Age

Page Count

212

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195034252

ISBN 13

9780195034257

Book's by Whitney Balliett

American Musicians II

American Musicians II

American Singers

American Singers

Collected Works

Collected Works

New York Voices

New York Voices

American Musicians

American Musicians

Collected Works

Collected Works

American Musicians II

American Musicians II

American Singers

American Singers

Goodbyes and Other Messages

Goodbyes and Other Messages

Jelly Roll, Jabbo, and Fats

Jelly Roll, Jabbo, and Fats

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