Whitney Ballet

Whitney Balliett (born April 17, 1926 in New York City , † February 1, 2007 in Manhattan ) was an American jazz author and jazz critic of the New Yorker .

Life

Balliett was born in Manhattan and grew up in Glen Cove , Long Island . He attended Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire , where he also learned drums (after listening to Zutty Singleton ) and played at the Center Island Yacht Club during the summer. 1946 until his graduation he was at Cornell University , interrupted from military service. In 1954 he went to the New Yorker , where he first worked as a lecturer and wrote for "Talk of the Town" (without naming his name), but then also his own jazz column, after he wrote about it in 1957 for "Saturday Review". He retired in 1998, but wrote reviews until 2001 - in addition to jazz, film, theater (Off Broadway 1960/1), book reviews and poetry. His reviews have been published in several books. He was known for his lifelike portraits of jazz musicians, whom he often interviewed for several days and then wrote his articles after taking notes (he never used tape recorders). Although he had a penchant for classical mainstream jazz , he also discussed early B. Ornette Coleman or Cecil Taylor , about whom he wrote his first jazz column in 1957. In the 1950s he was also responsible for the " The Sound of Jazz " film CBS television with Nat Hentoff , in which they let musicians play together who would otherwise not appear together.

Balliett was married twice (his second wife was the painter Nancy Balliett) and had five children.

In 1996 he received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Quote

"Jazz, after all, is a highly personal, lightweight form - like poetry, it is an art of surprise - that, shaken down, amounts to the blues, some unique vocal and instrumental sounds, and the limited, elusive genius of improvisation. "(Ballet," The sound of Surprise "1959)

Literature (selection)

• American Musicians. 56 portraits in jazz . Oxford University Press, New York 1986, ISBN 0-19-503758-8 .
• American Musicians II. 72 Portraits in Jazz . Oxford University Press. New York 1996, ISBN 0-19-509538-3 .
• American Singers. 27 portraits in Song . Oxford University Press, New York 1988, ISBN 0-19-504610-2 .
• Collected Works. A Journal of Jazz 1954-1999 . St. Martin's Press, New York, 2000, ISBN 0-312-27008-9 (with his comments on old articles).
• Goodbyes and other messages. A journal of jazz, 1981-1990 . Oxford University Press, New York 1991, ISBN 0-19-503757-X .
• The Great Jazz Day. The Story of the Classic Photographs and the Unforgettable Film . Da Capo Press, New York 2002, ISBN 0-306-81163-4 (among others with Charles Graham, Dan Morgenstern ; a large photo for Esquire Magazine from August 1958 with 60 jazz musicians, among others Art Blakey , Charles Mingus , Coleman Hawkins , Sonny Rollins , Thelonious Monk , Mary Lou Williams , Lester Young , Dizzy Gillespie , Count Basie , Marian McPartland , was the model for the documentary “A great day in Harlem” from 1995).
• Improvising. 16 Jazz Musicians and Their Art . Oxford University Press, New York 1977, ISBN 0-19-502149-5 .
• New York Voices. 14 portraits . University Press, Jackson, Miss. 2006, ISBN 1-578-06836-3 (this time no jazz musicians, but three jazz club owners)
• Night Creature. A Journal of Jazz 1975-1980 . Oxford University Press, New York 1981, ISBN 978-0-19-502908-6 .
• The sound of surprise. 46 pieces on jazz . Da Capo Press, New York 1978, ISBN 0-306-77543-3 (reprint of the New York 1963 edition).

Web links

• Fordham Obituary in the Guardian
• Ballet at Quiet Bubble ( Memento from February 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Adam Goppnik's obituary in the New Yorker
• interview
• Obituary by Ratliff in the New York Times

Remarks

1. ↑ his actual preferred drummer was Big Sid Catlett