Whitney Lyon Balliett (17 April 1926 – 1 February 2007) was a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

critic and book reviewer for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' and was with the journal from 1954 until 2001.

Biography

Born in Manhattan and raised in

Glen Cove, Long Island Glen Cove is a city in Nassau County, New York, United States, on the North Shore of Long Island. At the 2020 United States Census, the city population was 28,365 as of the 2020 census. The city was considered part of the early 20th century ...

, Balliett attended Phillips Exeter Academy, where he learned to play drums in a band he summed up as "baggy Dixieland"; he played summer gigs at a Center Island yacht club. He was drafted into the Army in 1946, interrupting his freshman year at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, to which he returned to finish his degree in 1951 and where he was a member of

Delta Phi Delta Phi () is a fraternity founded in 1827 at Union College in Schenectady, New York consisting of ten active chapters along the East Coast of the United States. The fraternity also uses the names "St. Elmo," "St. Elmo Hall," or merely "Elmo" ...

fraternity. He then took a job at ''

'', where he was hired by Katherine White, one of the magazine's fiction editors. He went on to write more than 550 signed pieces for ''The New Yorker'', as well as many anonymous pieces. Acclaimed for his literary writing style, Balliett died on 1 February 2007, aged 80, from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

, survived by his second wife Nancy Balliett and five children (of both marriages): James Fargo Balliett, Blue Balliett, Will Balliett, Julie Lyon Rose, and Whitney Balliett, Jr.

Bibliography

Books

*''The Sound of Surprise: 46 Pieces on Jazz'', 1960 *''Dinosaurs in the Morning: 41 Pieces on Jazz'', 1962 *''Such Sweet Thunder: 49 Pieces on Jazz'', 1966, Bobbs-Merrill Company *''Super-drummer: A Profile of Buddy Rich'', 1968 *''Ecstasy at the Onion: 31 Pieces on Jazz'', 1971 *''Alec Wilder and His Friends'', 1974, Houghton Mifflin *''New York Notes: A Journal of Jazz, 1972-1975'', 1976, Houghton Mifflin *''Improvising: Sixteen Jazz Musicians and Their Art'', 1977, Oxford University Press *''American Singers , 1979, Oxford University Press *''Night Creature: A Journal of Jazz 1975-1980'', 1981, Oxford University Press *''Jelly Roll, Jabbo, and Fats: 19 Portraits in Jazz'', 1983, Oxford University Press *''American Musicians: Fifty-Six Portraits in Jazz'', 1986, Oxford University Press *''American Singers: Twenty-seven Portraits in Song'', 1988, Oxford University Press *''Barney, Bradley, and Max: Sixteen Portraits in Jazz'', 1989, Oxford University Press *''Goodbyes and Other Messages: A Journal of Jazz, 1981-1990'', 1991, Oxford University Press *''American Musicians II: Seventy-one Portraits in Jazz'', 1996, Oxford University Press *''Collected Works: A Journal of Jazz 1954-2000'', 2000, St. Martin's Press *''New York Voices: Fourteen Portraits'', 2006, University Press of Mississippi

Essays and reporting

* "John Gordon's Folk Art: A Great Flowering of Free Spirits", ''The New Yorker'', February 3, 1973 * "Coming Out Again" (on Anita Ellis), ''The New Yorker'', July 31, 1978

Book reviews

Notes

External links

''Guardian'' obituary
7 February 2007
Whitney Balliett's contributions to ''The New Yorker''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balliett, Whitney 1926 births 2007 deaths American music journalists Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Cornell University alumni The New Yorker people The New Yorker critics Writers from Manhattan Deaths from cancer in the United States Writers from Glen Cove, New York Jazz writers Journalists from New York City Military personnel from New York City