Ratliff runs the JVC festival down

[skeith]

He says the NYC JVC is really no good (big surprise) but that the Newport festival has now become the best of the the JVC festivals and I am really envious of you Rhode Island folks.

[Ted O'Reilly]

Doug Ramsey has a new blog, and started on June 15 with a mention of Ratliff's pre-review at Rifftides:

http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/

[skeith]

Ted

thanks for posting Ramsey's comments. He's a guy whose writing and opinions I have a lot of respect for.

On the other hand, I think what Ratliff was saying was not that any of the pianists playing in the tribute concert would be boring, it was that tribute concerts to Ellington, Monk, etc. have been done so many times at these JVC things - that it can get old. Maybe Ratliff is saying other musicians can be explored for tribute concerts.

[Christiern]

Ratliff is, in my opinion, the worst jazz writer the New York Times has had. I know for a fact that the Times is receiving letters of complaint from professionals in this business--I hope they take a good look at Ratliff's work, which has been outrageously pro LC, not to mention uninformed. This piece might just be the last straw.

[kdd]

I have to agree he's the worst I've seen in such a position. He doesn't seem to know much about the music and doesn't write very well. Quite a double whammy for someone who writes for "the paper of record". I like what Doug Ramsey said on his site about it.

[ajf67]

I thought the Ratliff piece was correct about tired program choices, but I don't know enough about the rest of his writing. I've generally been so pleased to see anything about current jazz that I'm sure I overlook flaws!

I thought his piece yesterday on Fred Anderson was just OK. To raise a possible defense for him, I imagine jazz writers for the NYT or any other newspaper are directed to "dumb down" coverage while also making it short and sweet because of limited room for jazz.

[Dr. Rat]

Ratliff is, in my opinion, the worst jazz writer the New York Times has had. I know for a fact that the Times is receiving letters of complaint from professionals in this business--I hope they take a good look at Ratliff's work, which has been outrageously pro LC, not to mention uninformed. This piece might just be the last straw.

←

Well, I'd bet that if this is the last straw (which I doubt) Ben Ratliff will go down as perhaps the worst but deifnitely the last jazz writer employed by the Times. The reason why he's there in the first place is because respectability amongst angry letter writers means very little to them. They're obviously looking for someone who might develop a bit more interest and enthusiasm in the subject matter. A pretty obvious last ditch effort, in my opinion.

--eric

[skeith]

Well I have said before that I find the occasional Ratliff sentence to be completely incomprehensible.

On the other hand, I would say his recent listening session interviews with Pat Metheny and Josh Redman have been great.