Considering that some of these essays, most published in The New Yorker over a ten-year period, are over 25 years old, this book is valuable mainly for its historical content. These short pieces contain reviews of festivals, cruises, performances, recordings, and books; biographical sketches of players as well as people like John Hammond who recorded and championed jazz; and the history behind events or record labels such as Blue Note and Commodore. The contents are organized by years. Balliett comments on Duke Ellington’s sacred music, a collection of long out-of-print writings by critic Otis Ferguson, sums up the careers of jazz giants such as Thelonious Monk and Count Basie, and introduces us to then up-and-coming players like Michel Petrucciani and Howard Alden. His observations are couched in colorful language and his often improbable juxtapositions (Ornette Coleman and Wynton Marsalis) are tantalizing.

Whitney Balliett, jazz critic for The New Yorker, also authored American Musicians: 56 Portraits in Jazz; Amercian Musicians II: Seventy-Two Portraits in Jazz; Barney, Bradley, and Max: Sixteen Portraits in Jazz; and American Singers: Twenty-seven Portraits in Song.