Jelly Roll, Jabbo, and Fats

In this collection of jazz portraits that have appeared in the New Yorker, Balliett recreates the personalities and styles of the musical artists whose works he analyzes. He presents descriptions of and reactions to six pianists (including Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller and Erroll Garner), four saxophonists (from Sidney Bechet to Ornette Coleman), two trumpeters (Doc Cheatham and the legendary Jabbo Smith), three drummers, the trombonist Vic Dickenson, "the best jazz bassist alive" (Michael Moore), and the French jazz critics Hughes Panassie and Charles Delaunay. ISBN 0-19-503275-6 (Cloth) : $17.95.