Introduction
This Ralph J. Gleason chronology summarizes the most influential events in the life of this extraordinary music journalist. Such timelines are illuminating:
Chronology is important because the exact order in which events occur helps us understand the cause and the effect of those events, and thereby allows us to step back and view the “big picture” of history – how and why events unfold in the way they do, and how they are related.
“Writing on History,” City University of New York
In Ralph Gleason’s life, the cause-and-effect links occured because of his evolving inner beliefs and values, not just his physical settings.
Yes, by attending Columbia University in 1934 and moving to San Francisco in 1946, Gleason placed himself in the center of impactful music scenes that reshaped his perspective.
But these events set the direction of Gleason’s career because they catalyzed forces already at work in Gleason’s persona. Forces that predisposed him to fall in love with the jazz scenes of those two cities.
And so, as I wrote The Life and Times of Ralph Gleason, I constantly asked myself why a particular event left Gleason a new person. As his chronology emerged, it became clear that there were two intertwining timelines. The first was the sequence of typical milestones in a music journalist’s career, such as Gleason’s first writing job. But within this helix of events was a second timeline – Gleason’s evolution as a person and writer.
The following Ralph Gleason Chronology is my attempt to summarize key events and note how Ralph responded. It’s not just a “big picture,” but a ride through the history of 20th-century American music.
Ralph J. Gleason Chronology:
Early Years, 1917-45
1917: Gleason was born in a Bronx walkup to Irish American parents. His birth coincided with the start of the Jazz Age.
1919: The Gleason family relocated to Chappaqua, a rural commuter community outside of New York City.
1934: Gleason registered at Columbia University but his real education came inside the Harlem Apollo and clubs on 52nd Street.
1937: Gleason started his lifelong involvement with radical politics by editing University Against War, the magazine of the Columbia anti-war movement.
1936: 19-year-old Gleason began his journalism career by writing “Off the Record” for the Columbia Spectator. He reviewed milestone singles and scintillating performances by artists such as Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Ella Fitzgerald, and Django Reinhardt.
1938: Gleason left Columbia University without completing his degree and became a prominent figure in the Jazz Revival. He co-founded the influential collector magazine Jazz Information and fell in love with and married fellow jazz enthusiast Jean Rayburn.
1945: After World War II, Gleason became an outspoken jazz critic writing for Record Changer and DownBeat.
Ralph J. Gleason Chronology:
Breakthrough Years, 1946-59
1946: Ralph and Jean Gleason moved from New York to the San Francisco Bay area. Ralph began to cover the San Francisco jazz scene in his DownBeat column, “Swingin’ the Golden Gate.”
1950: After losing their first child, Ralph and Jean had their second child, Bridget, followed by Stacy (1951) and Toby (1953). Home life included a steady stream of great musicans such a trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.
1951: In the most conequential turning point in his career, Gleason joined the San Francisco Chronicle and wrote a new pop music column, “Rhythm Section.” He reviewed recordings and performances of the era’s top musicians, such as Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Hank Williams, and Elvis Presley.
1951: In his columns for DownBeat and the Chronicle, Gleason covered the emergent West Coast Jazz Scene from San Francisco, one of the movement’s centers. He became involved in the circle of Bay Area musicians who were regulars at the Black Hawk jazz club and recorded for Fantasy Records, where Gleason penned liner notes for breakthrough albums by the likes of Dave Brubeck, Cal Tjader, and Vince Guaraldi.
1957: After seeing a show by free-speaking comic Lenny Bruce, Gleason became a fan. A staunch defender of Bruce’s right to free speech, Gleason became a close friend, even appearing in court as a witness on Bruce’s behalf.
1958: Gleason published his first book, Jam Session, a collection of jazz writings by him and other authors. That year the Chronicle syndicated his column across the country.
1958: Gleason founded Jazz: A Quarterly of American Music, one of the earliest journals dedicated to jazz.
1958: Gleason co-founded the Monterey Jazz Festival with late-night deejay Jimmy Lyons. It became one of the world’s top jazz events.
1959: Gleason wrote his first columns about free jazz innovator Ornette Coleman. Against the wishes of his editors, he began to write about how the music of Coleman, John Coltrane, and other avant-jazz musicans expressed the rising call for Black empowerment.
1960: Gleason’s Jazz Casual was the first long-running television series dedicated to jazz. He interviewed legends like Ellington, Coltrane and Sonny Rollins.
Ralph J. Gleason Chronology:
Counterculture Years, 1964-9
1964: After initially criticizing the music of Bob Dylan and the Beatles, Gleason admitted his misjudgment and did a one-eighty. He became the first major jazz critic to embrace the new generation of rock and folk musicans who revolutionized pop music.
1965: As the sixties counterculture blossomed in San Francisco, Gleason championed its musicans.
1965: Gleason went to work for as an editor and writer for Ramparts, the storied San Francisco magazine of politics and culture.
1966: While covering the North Beach jazz milieu, Gleason reported on the booming San Francisco ballroom scene led by legendary promoter Bill Graham.
1966: Gleason began mentoring an aspiring music journalist, Jann Wenner. They began to visualize a new direction for pop music journalism.
1967: Gleason helped plan the Monterey Pop Festival and arranged for Janis Joplin’s iconic performance.
1967: Gleason and Wenner co-founded Rolling Stone magazine, named after Gleason’s article “Like a Rolling Stone.” The tabloid became the most successful rock magazine of its time. Gleason served as an editor and wrote “Perspectives,” one of the most-read music columns of that period.
1968: Gleason created a series of three television documentaries focusing on the San Francisco rock scene: West Pole, Go Ride the Music, and A Night at the Family Dog. These programs paved the way for future rock shows on public TV, such as Soundstage and today’s Tiny Desk Concerts.
1969: Gleason’s involvement in the Wild West Festival caused a rift between him and the San Francisco counterculture.
1969: Gleason published his second book, The Jefferson Airplane and the San Francisco Sound. It provided the first comprehensive history of the city’s counterculture. The book impacted future histories of the movement.
1969: In his review of Miles Davis’s first fusion album In a Silent Way, Gleason introduced readers to the coming jazz-rock movement. A year later, Gleason penned the liner notes to Davis’s masterwork, Bitches Brew.
1969: Gleason won the ASCAP Deems-Taylor Award for his article “Jazz: Black Art/American Art.” In it, he expressed his controversial belief that Black musicians invented jazz and made its most significant developments.
Ralph J. Gleason Chronology:
Post-Counterculture Years, 1970-75
1970: Gleason left his full-time position at the Chronicle held for 20 years. He was appointed as vice president of Fantasy Records where he scouted for talent and established a film division.
1972: Gleason won his second ASCAP Deems Taylor award for his Rolling Stone article, “God Bless Louis Armstrong.”
1973: Gleason produced Payday for Fantasy, “A brilliant, nasty little chrome-plated razor blade of a movie,” according to the New York Times.
1973: Gleason was thrilled to learn he made Nixon’s Enemies List due to his association with radical groups and Rolling Stone articles criticizing Nixon.
1975: Gleason wrote his third book, Celebrating the Duke, an anthology of his writings on Black musicians from Billie Holiday to Albert Ayler.
1975: Gleason died from a massive heart attack he suffered at home. The sudden, unexpected loss shocked the music industry and beyond. Jann Wenner produced a special Rolling Stone memorial issue in which some of the era’s most outstanding musicians paid tribute, from Frank Sinatra to Miles Davis.
Conclusion
So, that brings us to the end of our ride through an extraordinary life.
Gleason achieved an incredible string of accomplishments for such a short life. He racked up these successes by accepting new types of music that unsettled popular tastes of of the time and, occasionally, Gleason’s presuppositions. Across his career, Gleason constructed his identity as a music fan around new, disruptive forms of music.
Chronology is important because the exact order in which events occur helps us understand the cause and the effect of those events.
In Gleason’s evolution, the “causes” were the records and performances of revolutionary artists like Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, the Beatles, the Jefferson Airplane, and Bob Dylan.
The “effects”? The transformation of Gleason’s psyche as he pushed his old self out of the way to embrace a new musical rebel making waves.
In doing so, he encouraged thousands of readers to do the same. Isn’t this what we need more of today?
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