When Whitney Balliett's American Musicians first appeared in the
fall of 1986, the acclaim it received was universal. Leonard
Feather, writing in The Los Angeles Times, said "no other writer
now living can write with comparable grace and equal enthusiasm
about everyone from Jack Teagarden and Art Tatum to Cecil Taylor
and Ornette Coleman." And Bruce Cook in The New Leader called the
book "the quintessential Whitney Balliett, the cream of the cream,
a collection that leaves no doubt about his strength."
Now greatly expanded with sixteen new essays, American Musicians
II remains a superb introduction to the giants of jazz, or as
Balliett himself calls it, "a highly personal encyclopedia, a
series of close accounts of how a beautiful music grew, flourished,
and (possibly) began the long trek back to its native silences."
Breathtaking in its scope, the book features Balliett's singular
portraits of jazz greats who have shaped this uniquely American
tradition from its earliest days to the present, from inimitable
innovators like Joe "King" Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton, to
swing-era mainstays Fats Waller and Lester Young, to avant-garde
pioneers such as Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman. We are treated
to profiles of Pee Wee Russell, Red Allen, Earl Hines, and Mary Lou
Williams, written when they were at the height of their powers;
reconstructions of the lives of Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Jack
Teagarden, Zoot Sims, and Dave Tough; quick but indelible glimpses
into the daily (or nocturnal) lives of Duke Ellington and Charles
Mingus; and vivid portrayals of such modern masters as Red Norvo,
Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones, Art Farmer, Michael Moore, and Tommy
Flanagan. This new edition adds essays on such major musicians as
Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, George Shearing,
and Paul Desmond.
In the forty years that he has written for The New Yorker, Whitney
Balliett has earned the reputation as America's foremost jazz
critic. The late Philip Larkin described him as a "writer who
brings jazz journalism to the verge of poetry." Alistair Cook wrote
that he is, "without a rival in sight, the most literate and
knowledgeable living writer on jazz." And Gene Lees called him "one
of the most graceful essayists in the English language on any
subject." Now, with the second edition of American Musicians in
hand, music lovers can experience Balliett's peerless observations
on the jazz scene, as he takes you into the hearts and minds of
jazz's great practitioners.
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