Ted Gioia

• Name — Ted Gioia • Born — 21 October 1957 • Birthplace — Hawthorne, California, U.S. • Occupation — Music historian, jazz critic and writer • Notable Works — * The Birth (and Death) of the Cool (2009) • Work Songs (2006) • Healing Songs (2006) • Love Songs: The Hidden History (2015) • Education — * Stanford University (BA) • University of Oxford (MA) • Stanford Business School (MBA) • Relatives — Dana Gioia (brother)

Gioia grew up in an Italian-Mexican household in Hawthorne, California, and later earned degrees from Stanford University and the University of Oxford, as well as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

After graduating from Stanford Business School in 1984, Gioia served as an adviser to Fortune 500 companies while with the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey & Company, and as an executive with Pilkington Visioncare, Sola Optical and Essilor. When Gioia worked amidst Silicon Valley's venture capital community on Sand Hill Road, he was known as the "guy with the piano in his office." Gioia is also owner of one of the largest collections of research materials on jazz and ethnic music in the Western United States. Gioia is the author of several books on music, including Music: A Subversive History (2019), West Coast Jazz (1992), The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire (2012), and The Birth (and Death) of the Cool (2009). A second updated and expanded edition of The History of Jazz was published by Oxford University Press in 2011, and a third revised edition was issued in 2021. Love Songs: The Hidden History, published by Oxford University Press in 2015, is a survey of the music of courtship, romance, and sexuality; it completes a trilogy of books on the social history of music that includes Work Songs (2006) and Healing Songs (2006). All three books have been honored with ASCAP's Deems Taylor Award. In his study of love songs, Gioia contends that innovations in the history of this music came from Africa and the Middle East. In 2006, Gioia was the first to expose, in an article in the Los Angeles Times, the FBI files on folk and roots music icon Alan Lomax. He founded the website jazz.com in December 2007 and served as president and editor until 2010. Gioia is also a jazz pianist and composer. He has produced recordings featuring Bobby Hutcherson, John Handy, and Buddy Montgomery. His music was featured in the final season of the TV series Better Call Saul.

Gioia is the brother of poet Dana Gioia.

Ted Gioia is recorded with the occupation music journalist. Recorded with the occupation jazz musician. Recorded with the occupation musicologist. Recorded with the occupation pianist. Recorded with the occupation author. Classed in the genre jazz. Recorded as writer, pianist, music journalist, musicologist and musician.