Jump to content

Ratliff runs the JVC festival down


Recommended Posts

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...