Gary Giddins, the jazz critic whose award-­winning writing includes 31 years of Village Voice columns and books about Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and Charlie Parker, is the 2016 Satchmo Symposium’s vastly qualified keynote speaker.

Now hard at work on the second of his three­-volume Crosby biography, Giddins will present Pops and Bing: A Real Mutual Admiration Society, Friday, August 5, at Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carré.

The winner of six ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards and five Ja...