I read this book for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge hosted over
at My
Reader’s Block from January 1 – December 31, 2017. The challenge is to read
books that you already own.
American Singers:
Twenty-seven Portraits in Song – Whitney Balliett
The author was the jazz critic for the New Yorker from
1954 to 2001. He wrote book reviews, profiles and unavoidable in the Seventies,
lots of obituaries. The book was released in 1986 to wide acclaim since many of
the singers were in the twilight of their careers and fans wanted to appreciate
them and their work while the singers were still around. The highlights
There is also a piece on Alec Wilder, a lyrical
and moving songwriter and composer. In daring to assemble such a collection,
one can always quibble. Like, where’s Julia Lee? And Oxford
University Press, where the hell is the index? Anything published by a
university press has got to have an index.
These should be read as they were published: as stand-alone
pieces, separated in time by at least a week. Otherwise, Balliett’s poetical
metaphor-loving style cloys a little.
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