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Gary Giddins

Gary Giddins (born 1948) is an American jazz critic and author.^[1] He wrote for The Village Voice from 1973;^[1] his "Weather Bird" column ended in 2003.^[2] In 1986, Gary Giddins and John Lewis created the American Jazz Orchestra which presented concerts using a jazz repertory with musicians such as Tony Bennett.^[2]

For five years, Giddins was the executive director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.^[2]

Selected works[edit]

Books[edit]

• Riding on a Blue Note (1981)
• A Moment's Notice: Portraits of American Jazz Musicians (with Carol Friedman) (1983)
• Rhythm-a-ning: Jazz Tradition and Innovation (1985)
• Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker (1987, rev. 2013)
• Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong (1988, rev. 2001)
• Faces in the Crowd: Musicians, Writers, Actors, and Filmmakers (1992)
• Visions of Jazz: The First Century (1998)
• Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams - The Early Years, 1903-1940 (2001)
• Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of its Second Century (2004)
• Natural Selection: Gary Giddins on Comedy, Film, Music and Books (2006)
• Jazz: The Essentials (with Scott DeVeaux) (2009, rev. 2014)
• Warning Shadows: Home Alone with Classic Cinema (2010)
• Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star - The War Years, 1940-1946 (2018)

Films[edit]

• 1987: Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker
• 1990: Masters of American Music: Satchmo - Louis Armstrong aka Satchmo
• 1992: John Hammond: From Bessie Smith to Bruce Springsteen (writer)
• 1999: Contributed to the documentary Barry Harris: The Spirit of Bebop. Giddins (& others) described how Harris developed and maintained an appreciation for Bebop and became a force to engage so many people in a deep love and commitment to music performance.
• 2000: Contributor of interviews throughout the 10-part PBS series Jazz by Ken Burns.
• 2004–2007: The Jazz Master Class Series from NYU: Narrator, interviewer, interviewee; series of seven volumes on Cecil Taylor, Jimmy and Percy Heath, Barry Harris, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Hank Jones, Toots Thielemans
• 2003–present: Consultant, interviews, commentaries, liner notes for various films for The Criterion Collection^[3]
• 2014: Bing Crosby Rediscovered – American Masters

Awards[edit]

• A 9th, 10th, 17th, and 37th Annual ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award Writers or Editors^[4][5][6][7]
• 1982 and 1990 Nominee for and 1986 winner of Grammy for Best Album Notes^[8][9]
• Guggenheim Fellowship 1986^[10]
• 1987 American Book Award for Celebrating Bird^[11]
• 1988 Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Grinnell College^[12]
• ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for Celebrating Bird [book], 1988.^[11]
• 1998 National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism for Visions of Jazz: The First Century^[13]
• 1999 Jazz Journalists Association Excellence in Print and Book of the Year (for Visions of Jazz) Awards.^[14]
• Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award for Visions of Jazz, 1998^[15]
• Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award for Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams, 2002.^{[14][failed verification]}
• The 2002 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Best Research in Recorded General Popular Music Award Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams: The Early Years, 1903–1940^[16]
• 2002 Theatre Library Association Award for excellence in writing on film and broadcasting for Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams: The Early Years, 1903–1940^[17]
• 2001 New York Times-selected Notable Book: Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams: The Early Years, 1903–1940^[18]
• Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams: The Early Years, 1903–1940 nominated one of Los Angeles Times's Best Books of 2001^[19]
• The 2003 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Writer of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Awards^[20]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Gary GiddinsatIMDb
• GaryGiddins.com (official website)

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