Don Armstrong writes about music journalism history and groundbreaking critics like Ralph Gleason, who believe in pop music’s power to change the world. Surprisingly, Don’s interest in socially attuned music critics grew out of his experiences as an Associate Professor of Architecture at Tuskegee University, the historically Black institution founded by famed educator Booker T. Washington.
At Tuskegee, Don wrote several papers on the student brick-making program, where impoverished students earned their tuition by making bricks and building magnificent campus edifices. Don also published academic articles on innovative methods to teach architectural technology and African American culture. Many of these papers were delivered at conferences by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
Though Don enjoyed researching these architectural topics, his scholarship took a radical turn when he rediscovered music critic Ralph J. Gleason, whom he had read as a young man. After publishing two papers on Gleason, Don wrote the first biography of the pioneering music writer, The Life and Writings of Ralph J. Gleason.
Don Armstrong continues to write about iconoclastic music journalists in his blog and for future publication. In these writings, he focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the music press and champions pop music critics who help spread cultural democracy. Don lives in coastal south Florida with his journalist wife, Jessica.
Selected Publications by Don Armstrong: Click on Image for More Information
The Life and Writings of Ralph J. Gleason: Dispatches from the Front, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.
“Hot Collecting Off the Record: Ralph J. Gleason’s Start in Music Journalism,” Jazz Perspectives online, December 19, 2019.
“The Animals, Manfred Mann, The Rolling Stones: The History of the Blues-Rock Press Part 1,” Rock’s Back Pages.
“Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Howlin’ Wolf: The History of the Blues-Rock Press Part 2,” Rock’s Back Pages.
“Breaking Out of the Galaith Box: Women Music Journalists in America,” Rock’s Back Pages.
“An Interview with Baron Wolman,” Rock’s Back Pages.
“Space (Un)Veiled: Techne as a Means of Promoting Visibility in the Beginning Design Studio,” (with Carla Jackson Bell, Ph.D.), in Space Unveiled: Invisible Cultures in the Design Studio (Carla Jackson Bell, Ed.), Routledge, 2015.
“Brick Making and the Production of Place at the Tuskegee Institute,” in Space Unveiled: Invisible Cultures in the Design Studio (Carla Jackson Bell, Ed.), Routledge, 2015.
“Dispatches from the Front: The Life and Writings of Ralph J. Gleason,” (with Jessica Armstrong), Rock Music Studies, February 2014.
“Teaching for Transfer: Fostering Transmission of Knowledge between Classroom and Studio,” Proceedings of the ACSA 2009 Annual Meeting.
“Brick Making and the Production of Place at the Tuskegee Institute,” 2005 ARRIS: Journal of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.
“The Low Cash-Cost Housing Program at the Tuskegee Institute,” Archipelagos: Outposts of the Americas/Enclaves Amidst Technology, Proceedings of the ACSA 2004 Technology Conference.
“Techstudio: A Studio approach to Teaching Architectural Technology,” (with Jim Streuber), Architecture, Culture, and the Challenges of Globalization, Proceedings of the ACSA 2002 International Conference.