"The Sound of Surprise"

[Fred Shapiro]

Whitney Balliett defined jazz as "the sound of surprise."  Can anyone help
me trace the origins of this phrase?  I know of Balliett's 1959 book, The
sound of surprise : 46 pieces on jazz, but I assume he probably used it
before that.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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