Mahon About Town Nantucket Blog

Whitney Balliett died on February 2nd at the age of 80. Though not a resident of Nantucket, his daughter Blue Balliett was an island resident with her husband Bill Klein, the island’s first professional Planning Director. Blue is the author of The Ghosts of Nantucket: 23 True Accounts (spawning a cottage industry in ghost tours), Chasing Vermeer, (a bestseller and winner of the 2005 Edgar Award in the Best Juvenile category), and The Wright 3. Whitney Balliett was a jazz critic for the New Yorker from 1957 to 2001. It’s not easy to write about music, and Whitney was the best - maybe the best jazz writer in our lifetimes. Most of what I know about jazz has come from, other than listening, the words of Whitney Balliett and summer ‘Sconset resident Peter Watrous when he wrote columns on jazz for The New York Times.

Some additional notes on the passing of Phil Murray mentioned last issue: There will be a service at St. Paul’s Church at 4 pm on August 17, followed by a reception at Sankaty. Correcting some information: Phil was instrumental in raising funds, the Lifeline Campaign, along with his friend Sandy Craig, to help the hospital keep its doors open and create a cardiac-rehab unit

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