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

Books

• Riding on a Blue Note (1981)
• Rhythm-a-ning (1985)
• Celebrating Bird (1987)
• Satchmo (1988)
• Faces in the Crowd (1992)
• Visions of Jazz: The First Century (1998)
• Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams - The Early Years, 1903-1940 (2001)
• Weather Bird (2004)
• Natural Selection (2006)
• Jazz (2009)
• Warning Shadows: Home Alone with Classic Cinema (2010)
• Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star - The War Years, 1940-1946 (2018)

Films

• 1987: Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker
• 1990: Masters of American Music: Satchmo - Louis Armstrong aka Satchmo
• 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.
• 2014: Bing Crosby Rediscovered – American Masters