Ben Ratliff | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1968 (age 57–58) |
| Alma mater | Columbia University |
| Occupations | Journalist, music critic and author |
| Employer | The New York Times |
Ben Ratliff (born 1968 inNew York City) is an American journalist, music critic and author.
Ratliff is the son of an English mother and an American father, growing up inLondon and inRockland County, New York. From 1996 to 2016, he wrote about pop music andjazz forThe New York Times. He is the author of five books:Run the Song: Writing About Running About Listening (2025), long-listed for the National Book Award in Nonfiction[1];Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty (2016);The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music (2008);Jazz: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings (2002); and a critical biography ofJohn Coltrane (Coltrane: The Story of a Sound, 2007), which was a finalist for theNational Book Critics Circle Award.[2] His articles have appeared inThe New York Review of Books,Granta,Rolling Stone,Spin,The Village Voice,Slate andLingua Franca.[3] In 2005, he received the Helen Dance-Robert Palmer Award for "Excellence in Newspaper, Magazine or Online Writing" from theJazz Journalists Association.[4] From 2012 to 2016, he was a regular host ofThe New York Times popcast.[5]
He teaches cultural criticism atNew York University'sGallatin School of Individualized Study.[6] Ratliff earned a B.A. fromColumbia University in 1990.[7]
