Martin Tudor Hansford Williams (9 August 1924 – 11 or 12 April 1992) was an American jazz critic and writer.

Education and service in the armed forces

Williams was born in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. He attended St. Christopher Episcopal Preparatory School, then entered the U.S. Army during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After his military service during

, which included

Battle of Iwo Jima The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Navy (USN) landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJ ...

, Williams first studied law, then literature at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

( BA 1948), at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

( MA 1950) and at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Career

Williams, beginning in the early 1950s, became a prolific jazz critic, contributing articles to '' The Saturday Review,'' ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

,'' ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'', ''

Down Beat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

'', and ''

The Jazz Review ''The Jazz Review'' was a jazz criticism magazine founded by Nat Hentoff and Martin Williams in New York City in 1958. It was published until 1961. Hentoff and Williams were co-editors throughout its brief existence (which lasted 22 issues). M ...

'', which he founded in November 1958 with Nat Hentoff, which often featured contributions by jazz musicians, including Gunther Schuller, Dick Katz, and

Cecil Taylor Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in complex ...

. ''

'' also featured contributions by other notable people, including Sheldon Mayer and

Dan Morgenstern Dan Morgenstern (born October 24, 1929) is a jazz writer, editor, archivist, and producer. He is the son of the German-language Jewish author Soma Morgenstern. Morgenstern was raised in Vienna and Copenhagen and arrived in the United States in ...

. Williams authored many books on jazz, a collection of sixteen essays, profiling jazz musicians, in a book titled ''The Jazz Tradition.'' From 1971 to 1981 Williams headed the jazz and "American Culture Program" at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

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 RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

— produced ''Big Band Jazz''. With animation historian

Michael Barrier Michael J. Barrier (born June 15, 1940) is an American animation historian. Work Barrier was the founder and editor of ''Funnyworld'', the first magazine exclusively devoted to comics and animation. It began as a contribution to the CAPA-Alpha a ...

, Williams co-edited ''A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics'' (1982).

References

1924 births 1992 deaths American music critics Grammy Award winners Jazz writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers St. Christopher's School (Richmond, Virginia) alumni United States Army personnel of World War II University of Virginia alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Columbia University alumni {{US-music-journalist-stub