TY - JOUR TI - Martin Williams and the Armstrongian prophecy DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3V40ZMW PY - 2018 AB - This study examines the place of Louis Armstrong in the work of the jazz critic Martin Williams. By tallying Williams’s lasting interest in Armstrong from his teenage years to his last projects, the study shows that the critic’s focus on Armstrong’s rhythmic innovation depended on the argument that this particular aspect of Armstrong’s art was the major axis in the development of jazz history, an axis crucial to the emergence of other jazz musicians deemed most significant by Williams. The study further shows that Williams’s approach was most heavily influenced by the literary criticism of T. S. Eliot and the foundationalism of André Hodeir, and that Williams’s persistent interest in aesthetic lineage could be traced to the ambivalence he felt toward his own parentage. KW - Jazz History and Research LA - eng ER -