Ralph J. Gleason

Ralph J. Gleason (* March 1, 1917 in New York City, New York, † June 3, 1975 in Berkeley, California ) was an American jazz and rock journalist and critic.

Gleason studied in his hometown of New York at Columbia University. In 1938 he brought to completion the University one of the first jazz magazine Jazz Information out (then as Dixieland and New Orleans jazz fan ). In the late 1940s he moved to San Francisco, where he reported from 1950 regularly on jazz and pop music. He is regarded in the U.S. as the first critic of a major newspaper, who reported in this area with the same attention as his colleagues about Classical music. He recognized one of the first journalists the importance of Bob Dylan, Miles Davis and the comedian Lenny Bruce and popularized this, as he also generally an important observer of the flowering of cultural life of the city from the mid- 1950s (San Francisco Renaissance peak in the 1960s with slogans like Flower Power Hippie or culture) was. In the 1960s, he was a very respected journalist in the scene, who also was the " domestic" rock bands such as Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead ( and according to some critics to be little the scene in Los Angeles ).

In 1967 he established with Jann Wenner, the bi-weekly Rolling Stone magazine ( in whose imprint he is still being mentioned, as well as Hunter S. Thompson), for which he wrote until his death. He also wrote regular weekly columns on jazz and pop music in the New York Post and other magazines. Twelve years (1948-1961) he was the co - editor and critic for Down Beat. His articles have appeared also in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times, the New Statesman, Evergreen Review, American Scholar, Saturday Review, the New York Herald Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Sun Times, the Sydney Herald, Playboy, Esquire, Variety and stereo Review ( 1958-1973 ). 1958 to 1960 he edited a quarterly magazine Jazz.

For the TV channel " National Educational Television" (now PBS), he produced and wrote from 1961 to 1968 Jazz Casual, a series of 28 programs on jazz and blues, for example, Portraits ( with discussions ) about B.B. King, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Dave Brubeck, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Sonny Rollins. His two-hour Duke Ellington portrait was twice nominated for an Emmy. Next he turned a four-part series on the Monterey Jazz Festival, Anatomy of a Hit ( probably the first TV documentary about pop music ), as well as two documentaries about rock music in San Francisco, Go Ride the Music and A Night At The Family Dog.

With Jimmy Lyons in 1958 he founded the Monterey Jazz Festival. 1970 to 1975 he was Vice President at Fantasy Records. He also wrote numerous liner notes for jazz albums.

A title of the Red Garland Quartet (on Red's Blues in 1998, first in 1958 Prestige ) it is called in honor of Ralph J. Gleason Blues.

Works

• Jam Session, New York, GPPutnam 's Sons, 1958 ( collection of essays )
• The San Francisco Scene 1968 ( about rock music )
• Celebrating the Duke ... And other Heroes, Boston, Little Brown and Co., 1975 ( Duke Ellington )