Goodbyes and Other Messages: A Journal of Jazz, 1981-1990
In short essays, most of which appeared originally in the New Yorker , Balliett chronicles the world of jazz in the 1980s, discussing numerous musicians, performances, jazz festivals, books, recordings and subjects as wide-ranging as the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, impresario John Hammond, jazz club owner Max Gordon, and a jazz cruise in the Caribbean. Balliett, longtime jazz critic for the New Yorker , has an uncanny ability to characterize music in words: one can hear the exuberant trumpet of Warren Vache, the delicate piano of Teddy Wilson, the suave genius of a song by Peggy Lee. He also captures the side-show antics of Miles Davis, the regal aura of an appearance by Eileen Farrell and Mabel Mercer at Manhattan's Alice Tully Hall, the steamy mood of a performance by Old and New Dreams. Each essay is written in language as rich and inventive as the music itself.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.