DECIDING WHICH BOOK TO GIVE IS THE ONLY PROBLEM

December is traditionally the time to think about giving and receiving jazz books, and this season they are plentiful. The following are among the most valuable that have arrived recently for review:

“AMERICAN MUSICIANS: 56 PORTRAITS IN JAZZ” by Whitney Balliett (Oxford University Press: $22.95). Despite the title, the essays begin with two French critics, Hugues Panassie and Charles Delaunay; later chapters deal with Stephane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt and Marian McPartland. Some of the subjects died long before the author came to jazz; their portraits are no less valid. Written between 1962 and early 1986, all these pieces are examples of Balliett’s pointillistic and fascinating (even when infuriating) approach to the artistry of jazz and its makers.

There has been some editing since the pieces appeared in the New Yorker magazine and in earlier books; one of Balliett’s few rash statements, “Michael Moore is the best jazz bassist alive,” has been deleted. No other writer now living can write with comparable grace and equal enthusiasm about everyone from Jack Teagarden and Art Tatum to Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman.

“WITH LOUIS AND THE DUKE” by Barney Bigard (Macmillan: $18.95). The late clarinetist, best known for his work with Duke Ellington from 1928-1941 and for several stints with Louis Armstrong, taped his reminisces not long before his death six years ago. His editor, drummer Barry Martyn, did a hasty job. Omitted are the seminal “Bigard’s Jazzopaters” records with Ellington (the first “band within a band” sessions); Bigard’s association on records with such giants as Art Tatum, and the full story of who contributed lyrics to Bigard’s best-known composition, “Mood Indigo.” There was, too, a dark side to Armstrong’s personality of which the author had to be aware, though he denies its existence. For what it tells about the early New Orleans years, the Ellington experience and the gang control of the Cotton Club, this is a useful though flawed work by a superb and fondly remembered pioneer.

“BOSTON BOY” by Nat Hentoff (Knopf: $15.95). Best known now as a political writer, Hentoff first came to prominence as a jazz disc jockey and critic. He brings to this short memoir (ending in 1953, when he left for New York) the same conviction and courage that forced him to rebel, with equal vigor, against anti-Semitism and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

Interweaving his background as a Jew growing up in “the most bigoted city in the nation” with his discovery of jazz as an art form, Hentoff throws vivid light on the racial and religious climate of his adolescent years. He writes poignantly about another Boston jazz expert, the late George Frazier, against whom he brought an ill-advised and soon-regretted lawsuit.

“Boston Boy” reads so well (but so fast) that one can only hope its sequel is not too far away.

“UP FROM THE CRADLE OF JAZZ” by Jason Berry, Jonathan Foose and Tad Jones (University of Georgia Press: $35 cloth, $15.95 paper). A void is filled by this survey of New Orleans jazz--not the often-documented ancient history, but events in the city since World War II. The span is broad: rock, doo-wop, funk, R&B; and folk blues are all here. An inference one can draw is that the flow of jazz has moved in both directions: the impact of New York-based musicians (Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman) on New Orleans jazzmen has been powerful and pervasive.

Other forces--the early local piano and guitar men, the Caribbean connection, the disc jockeys, the night clubs--are carefully scrutinized in this heavily illustrated volume. There is a slightly excessive stress on colorful characters; one wonders why Bobby Marchan, a comedian-singer and female impersonator, is here while Cousin Joe (Pleasant Joseph), one of the great New Orleans blues singers of the past 40 years, is absent. Still, for what it does include, this is a valuable addition to the jazz bibliography. The work is sufficiently up to date to include a detailed examination of the Marsalis family.

“IN THE MOMENT: JAZZ IN THE 1980s” by Francis Davis (Oxford University Press: $18.95). To the fast-growing list of perceptive and readable authorities on jazz must be added the name of Francis Davis, critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In this collection of his essays, written during the past five years for that publication and for various magazines, he makes his predilections clear: He is mostly concerned with artists who are associated with current developments.

Yet, along with pieces on David Murray, Roscoe Mitchell, Ran Blake and the World Saxophone Quartet are felicitous examinations of Scott Hamilton, Warne Marsh and other mainstreamers or post-boppers. Some of Davis’ subjects are relatively obscure (Mathias Ruegg, leader of the Vienna Art Orchestra, and Keshavan Maslak, a saxophonist who led a group called Loved by Millions, described by the author as “a clamorous rhythm ‘n’ dissonance band”), but all are of sufficient relevance to merit Davis’ attention.

Oddly, Davis excludes all mention of an artist considered by many musicians to be the most talented composer to rise to prominence in the past decade, Toshiko Akiyoshi. On the other hand, for Davis, his namesake Anthony Davis (no relation) “summarizes the last 20 years of innovation in jazz.” Despite such highly questionable asseverations, Davis can be taken seriously and read pleasurably.

“DICK HYMAN’S PROFESSIONAL CHORD CHANGES AND SUBSTITUTIONS FOR 100 TUNES EVERY MUSICIAN SHOULD KNOW.” (Ekay Music: $15.95). The perfect gift for anyone who plays an instrument. Hyman, noticing that many old standards were published with primitive chord patterns, has inserted, wherever necessary, updated suggestions for everything from “Ain’t She Sweet” and “Body and Soul” to “Round Midnight” and “What’s New?” All original melodies and lyrics are included.

“SITTING IN” by Hayden Carruth (University of Iowa Press: $15.95). A professor of English at Syracuse University, Carruth examines jazz from a viewpoint that is affectionate, highly intellectualized and at times inaccessible. Some of these pieces (collected during the past decade) are not related to jazz (“To All Human Consciousness the Clandestine Is Basal,” for example); several are poems dedicated to Maxine Sullivan, Earl Hines and others.

But when the prose pieces are dedicated to his icons (Pee Wee Russell, Bessie Smith), he is on firm footing, and his long final chapter, “Eleven Memoranda on the Culture of Jazz,” makes points that are cogent, provocative and sometimes brilliant.

“BIG NOISE FROM NOTRE DAME” by Joseph Kuhn Carey. (University of Notre Dame Press: $14.95 paper). The uniquely long-lasting Collegiate Jazz Festival, the oldest event of its kind, is held annually at the University of Notre Dame. In this painstakingly detailed and illustrated volume are examined, year by year, minutiae concerning the participants, the judges, the winners, as well as the sociopolitical background and how the entire jazz education movement grew in the years since 1959. Whether or not the future of jazz will be guided by college musicians seems more debatable now than 20 years ago, but the achievements of the past, and the dedicated spirit of the thousands of performers and teachers, is carefully preserved here, along with a surprisingly lengthy discography of albums--hundreds of them--recorded by college jazz bands.