Jazz Critic 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.

His new biography of Bing Crosby is called, Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams—the Early Years, 1903-1940 (Little Brown and Company). From 1930s to the 50s, Crosby was a pop culture icon, dominating American entertainment with his hit records and movies. In this first volume of the biography, Giddins chronicles the rise of Crosbys 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.

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.