92
RICHARD POIRIER
mote among students an incapacity to read literature and to talk m–
telligently about it. And what they do badly as students they
will
do
worse in the hardening of maturity. Such a baleful conclusion is not
extravagant when measured against the fact that this book represents
the combined efforts of three teachers from reputable institutions (Ohio
State University, Western Reserve University, Yale University are listed
on the cover) and that it has already been accepted for use by a number
of colleges and universities where one can only hope that it was not
actually read by the teachers who are asking their classes
to
study it.
Richard Poirier
BALLIETT'S BAILIWICK
Since 1957 Whitney Balliett's
New Yorker
columns on jazz-
84 of which are collected here,* along with three early pieces for other
magazines-have been blooming quietly among the strange and un–
steady opinions of Winthrop Sargeant, Anthony West, and the maga–
zine's other regulars. But I became aware only very gradually of how
extraordinary Balliett's writing is, since it has enough irritating
New
Yorker
mannerisms
to
make it look quite unpromising at first glance.
Like the people interviewed in "The Talk of the Town," the musicians
Balliett interviews are always nonstop talkers who are rather coolly
watched as they run on enthusiastically about something-or-other: "he
replied, hunching forward excitedly, . . . he said, working up a new
head of steam," and so on. And in talking about jazz itself Balliett per–
sists in affecting the elaborate periphrases and the air of fastidious ex–
pertise that were probably borrowed from sports writers, but are an
important part of what
The New Yorker
thinks of as urbanity. Thus a
musician is often a "performer" ("Memphis Slim, a forty-five-year-old
*
The Sound of Surprise.
By Whitney Balliett. E. P. Dutton. $1.95.
Dinosaurs
in
the Morning.
By Whitney Balliett.
J.
B. Lippincott. $3.95.
