Martin Williams (writer)

Martin Tudor Hansford Williams (9 August 1924 – 11 or 12 April 1992)[1] was an American jazz critic and writer.[1][2][3][4]

Education and service in the armed forces

Williams was born in Richmond, Virginia. He attended St. Christopher Episcopal Preparatory School, then entered the U.S. Army during World War II. After his military service during World War II, which included Battle of Iwo Jima, Williams first studied law, then literature at the University of Virginia (BA 1948), at the University of Pennsylvania (MA 1950) and at Columbia University.

Career

Williams, beginning in the early 1950s, became a prolific jazz critic, contributing articles to The Saturday Review, The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, Down Beat, and The Jazz Review, which he founded in November 1958 with Nat Hentoff, which often featured contributions by jazz musicians, including Gunther Schuller, Dick Katz, and Cecil Taylor. The Jazz Review also featured contributions by other notable people, including Sheldon Mayer and Dan Morgenstern.

Williams authored many books on jazz, a collection of sixteen essays, profiling jazz musicians, in a book titled The Jazz Tradition.[5] From 1971 to 1981 Williams headed the jazz and "American Culture Program" at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., where, in 1973, he compiled and wrote liner notes for The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. In 1983, he, Gunther Schuller, and the Smithsonian — in collaboration with RCA Records — produced Big Band Jazz.[4][4][6][7][8][9][10][11] With animation historian Michael Barrier, Williams co-edited A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics (1982).[12]

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References
  1. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Barry Dean Kernfeld, Stanley Sadie (eds.), Macmillan
        1st ed. (2 vols.) (1988); OCLC 16804283
        1st ed. (reissue, combining 2 vols.) (1994); OCLC 30516743
        2nd ed. (3 vols.) (2002); OCLC 46956628
  2. International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory, Adrian Gaster (1919–1989) (ed.), Cambridge, England: International Who's Who in Music
        10th ed. (1984); OCLC 11828662
        12th ed. (1990); OCLC 28065697
  3. The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, (Williams is in Vol. 4 of 4), H. Wiley Hitchcock & Stanley Sadie (eds.), Macmillan Publishers (1986); (see Oxford Music Online); OCLC 13184437, OCLC 230202868
  4. Paula Morgan "Williams, Martin Tudor Hansford" in Barry Kernfeld (ed) The New Dictionary of Jazz, New York & London: Macmillan & St Martin's Press, 1994 [1988], p.1294 & p.xxxii
  5. The Jazz Tradition, Martin Williams, Oxford University Press (1970); OCLC 66266
  6. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (Williams is in Vol. 6 of 6), Macmillan; Schirmer
        9th ed, Laura Diane Kuhn (ed.) (born 1953) (2001); OCLC 44972043
  7. Who's Who in America, Marquis Who's Who; ISSN 0083-9396
        38th ed., 1974–1975 (1974); OCLC 23953115
        39th ed., 1976–1977 (1976); OCLC 23953086
        40th ed., 1978–1979 (1978); OCLC 4199915
        41st ed., 1980–1981 (1980); OCLC 476716124
        42nd ed., 1982–1983 (1982); OCLC 8505742
        43rd ed., 1984–1985 (1984); OCLC 11330908
        46th ed., 1990–1991 (1990); OCLC 22631411
  8. Who Was Who in America, Vol. 10, 1989–1993, Marquis Who's Who (1993); OCLC 27962202
  9. The Annual Obituary, 1992, Detroit: St. James Press (1993); OCLC 29247249
  10. Contemporary Authors, Gale Research
        Vols. 49–52 (1975); OCLC 123619198
        Vol. 137 (1992); OCLC 123619198
  11. Biography Index, H.W. Wilson Co.; ISSN 0006-3053 (print media) & OCLC 54897719 (online version)
        Vol. 17: Sep. 1990–Aug. 1992 (1992)
        Vol. 18: Sep. 1992–Aug. 1993 (1993); OCLC 59569808
        Vol. 19: Sep. 1993–Aug. 1994 (1994); OCLC 31703875
  12. "Fun, Horror and Adventure", New York Times, 5 September 1982


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