Charlie Parker was the greatest individual musician that ever lived. Every instrument in the band tried to copy Charlie Parker, and in the history of jazz there had never been one man who influenced all the instruments. — Gary Giddins Copy Share Image
Even my colleagues don't read classic criticism. And my feeling is that if you don't do that then you're not really practicing your craft.… — Gary Giddins Copy Share Image
I'm a critic. That means you are a writer. So, yes, you have to make yourself an authority on whatever subject it's going to be. Music, movies, literature, whatever it's going to be, but what you really want to do is learn your trade by reading other writers. I think you have to read veraciously, especially people who have done… — Gary Giddins Copy Share
You're writing for some version of yourself. You're writing the kinds of things that you like to read or wanted to read at a… — Gary Giddins Copy Share Image
One of the things I always underscore when I teach criticism is that young critics, or would be critics, frequently have this illusion that if they write about music they're somehow part of music, or if they write about movies they're part of movies, or of they write about theater they're part of theater, or write about literature. Writing is… — Gary Giddins Copy Share
Writing style is something is a consequence of who you are. I think that I had a certain propensity for a style that I recognize in my early work, but that doesn't mean I didn't have to learn certain basics and the longer you write the better you get. The rhythms come from you. If the rhythm seem to echo… — Gary Giddins Copy Share
I think all of us begin as writers. I wanted to be a writer from the time I as eight, long before I heard of jazz. The question is, once you have that obsession, what is your subject going to be and you often don't know for some time. It might become fiction, it might be non-fiction, and if it's… — Gary Giddins Copy Share
People should not feel intimidated by received wisdom. You have to discover it yourself. If I tell you that Armstrong is great, it's meaningless;… — Gary Giddins Copy Share Image
I hate the idea of turning jazz into homework assignments. I would never have a quiz saying, "Who's the clarinetist on the Hot Five?"… — Gary Giddins Copy Share Image
Jazz is for joy. It's for euphoria, it's for emotion, and anguish, and excitement, and all of the joys that great art can produce,… — Gary Giddins Copy Share Image
Bing Crosby said that Armstrong is "the beginning and the end of music in America," and he wasn't far wrong. — Gary Giddins Copy Share Image
Nobody knows where jazz is going, because nobody has ever known where jazz was going. I mean, you couldn't possibly predict the Swing Era… — Gary Giddins Copy Share Image
