Mixed Media : In Brief : “Goodbyes and Other Messages: A Journal of Jazz 1981-1990,” Whitney Balliett, Oxford University Press ($22.95).

Of the 47 subjects dealt with at more than token length in this latest collection of Balliett’s chronicles from the New Yorker, 30 are deceased. Still, such artists as Wynton Marsalis, Warren Vache and Tommy Flanagan are among the live and lively topics. The eulogies for Buddy Rich, Roy Eldridge and others bear rereading, as do even Balliett’s most egregious prejudices.

Rating: * * *