Gary Giddins is one of the world's foremost jazz critics. His books include Visions of Jazz, Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams, Satchmo, Weather Bird, Natural Selection, Jazz, and Warning Shadows, and his many recognitions include a National Book Critics Circle Award, the Jazz Journalists Association Lifetime Achievement Award, a Guggenheim, a Grammy, and six ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for Excellence in Music Criticism. He is executive director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.