Martin Williams

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Martin Tudor Hansfield Williams (born 1924 in Richmond, Virginia , † April 13, 1992 in Alexandria, Virginia ) was an American jazz critic and cultural journalist.

Life

Williams attended St. Christopher Episcopal Preparatory School. After his military service during the Second World War a. a. in Iwojima , he studied first law, then literature at the University of Virginia (BA 1948), at the University of Pennsylvania (MA 1950) and at Columbia University .

Williams was one of the most respected American jazz critics from the 1950s onwards. a. wrote for "The Saturday Review", the New York Times , Harper's Magazine , Down Beat and for " The Jazz Review ", which he founded with Nat Hentoff in November 1958 and which also regularly brought in contributions from jazz musicians himself, such as Gunther Schuller , Dick Katz or Cecil Taylor . In 1970 his essay The Jazz Tradition was published . From 1971 to 1981 he directed the jazz and "American Culture Program" at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, where he published the comprehensive " The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz " in 1973 (for which he wrote the commentaries), organized concerts and lectures and the archive sorted. He also created a scholarship program for young jazz critics, from which u. a. Stanley Crouch , Gary Giddins , J-R. Taylor, and Peter Keepnews emerged. For the subsequent "The Smithsonian Collection of Big Band Jazz" he received a Grammy in 1985 (with Gunther Schuller). From 1981 to 1991 he was a special project editor at the Smithsonian Institution Press. Williams published next to jazz books (especially "The Jazz Tradition" about his view of jazz history, which received the ASCAP - Deems Taylor Award for Music Criticism in 1973) also books on popular American culture, from comics - such as Elzie Segar , whom he greatly admired - to film and television.

He bequeathed his jazz-related estate to the Center of Black Music Research (CBMR) at Columbia College in Chicago.

Works (selection)

  • Hidden in Plain Sight: An Examination of the American Arts , Oxford University Press 1992 ISBN 0195075005
  • Jazz Changes , Oxford University Press 1992 (collection of articles and interviews), ISBN 0195083490
  • Jazz Masters in Transition 1957-1969 , da Capo 1980 (MacMillan Jazz Masters Series)
  • The Jazz Tradition , Oxford University Press 1983, 1993 (first 1970), ISBN 0195078160
  • Jazz Heritage , Oxford University Press 1985, 1988
  • Jazz in its time , Oxford University Press 1989, 1991
  • Where's the Melody ?: A Listener's Introduction to Jazz . Da Capo 1983 (first 1966), ISBN 0306801833
  • Ed. The Art of Jazz - Essays in the nature and development of Jazz , da Capo 1979
  • Jazz Masters of New Orleans , McMillan 1967, da Capo 1978 (eleven portraits)
  • Companion book to the Smithsonian Collection of Classical Jazz 1987
  • Jelly Roll Morton , Cassel & Co. 1962
  • King Oliver , Barnes 1960, German Hatje Verlag 1960
  • Ed. Jazz Panorama , Crowell-Collier 1962, new Da Capo Press, 1979

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ In the magazine, which existed until January 1961, the first contributions by Sheldon Mayer and Dan Morgenstern also appeared .
personal data
SURNAME Williams, Martin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Williams, Martin Tudor Hansfield (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz critic and cultural journalist
DATE OF BIRTH 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Richmond, Virginia
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1992
Place of death Alexandria, Virginia