Jazz Critic and Writer Gary Giddins.

We celebrate the centennial of Bing Crosby's birth with jazz critic and writer Gary Giddins. His biography of Bing Crosby is called Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams — The Early Years, 1903-1940. In this first volume of the biography, Giddins chronicles the rise of Crosby's career. Giddins may be best known as a jazz columnist for The Village Voice. He won the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Award for his book Visions of Jazz. He was one of the experts featured in Ken Burns' Jazz series on PBS. This interview first aired on January 24, 2001.

To complete our celebration of the centennial of Duke Ellington's birth (April 29th, 1899) a talk with music critic Gary Giddins. He won the National Book Critics Circle award for criticism for his new book "Visions of Jazz: The First Century." (Oxford Press). Giddins has written for The Village Voice for 25 years.

Gary Giddins, jazz critic for The Village Voice and author of the books Celebrating Bird: the Triumph of Charlie Parker, and Rhythm-a-ning: Jazz Tradition and Innovation in the 80s. He is the founder of the American Jazz Orchestra, which performs important and neglected jazz works of the past.