I can't get very excited about a musician who can do Art Tatum because I've got the Art Tatum records. I want to hear him take that and do something that hasn't been done. And there's enough of that going… — 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… — Gary Giddins Copy Share Image
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… — Gary Giddins Copy Share Image
Writing style is something is a consequence of who you are. I think that I had a certain propensity for a style that I… — Gary Giddins Copy Share Image
I think all of us begin as writers. I wanted to be a writer from the time I as eight, long before I heard… — Gary Giddins Copy Share Image
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
