Ben Ratliff (born 1968 in New York City) is an American journalist, music critic and author.
Biography
Ratliff is the son of an English mother and an American father, growing up in
London and in Rockland County, New York.
From 1996 to 2016, he wrote about pop music and
jazz for
The New York Times. He is the author of five books:
Run the Song: Writing About Running About Listening (2025),
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 of
John Coltrane (
Coltrane: The Story of a Sound, 2007), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
His articles have appeared in
The New York Review of Books,
Granta,
Rolling Stone,
Spin,
The Village Voice,
Slate and
Lingua Franca.
In 2005, he received the Helen Dance-Robert Palmer Award for "Excellence in Newspaper, Magazine or Online Writing" from the Jazz Journalists Association.
From 2012 to 2016, he was a regular host of
The New York Times popcast.
He teaches cultural criticism at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
Publications
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Run the Song: Writing About Running About Listening. Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, 2025.
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Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2016.
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The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music. Times Books, New York, 2008.
-
Coltrane: The Story of a Sound. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2007.
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The New York Times Essential Library: Jazz. Times Books, New York, 2002.
External links
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Official website
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Profile for The New York Times
-
Interview with Steven Ward, 2002
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Review of Run the Song by Becca Rothfield, Washington Post, April 10, 2025
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Interview with Pitchfork about Every Song Ever, Feb 26, 2016
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Review of Every Song Ever by August Kleinzahler, New York Times Book Review, March 3, 2016
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Interview about music algorithms on "What's the Point" podcast, fivethirtyeight.com, April 21, 2016
