November 2, 2020
Place of Assembly presents Ben Ratliff
EPISODE I.
We are joined by music journalist, author + educator Ben Ratliff, and cohost Patrick Higgins, to discuss human faculties for regarding music and space, and the meaning of physical spaces for communities of cultural practice in Manhattan from 1850 to the present.
PLACE OF ASSEMBLY : PODCAST -
Every episode of PLACE OF ASSEMBLY will feature a new artist space. We will look at any space that exists in the physical world, and in some way house creative communities and cultural production.
During this time of enforced isolation, while all of our places of gathering and work have been closed off to us, we are in a unique position to consider what these places mean to us.
Ben Ratliff is an American journalist, music critic and author. From 1996 to 2016, he wrote about pop music and jazz for The New York Times. He is the author of four books: 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 (The Story of a Sound, 2007). His articles have appeared in The New York Review of Books, Granta, Rolling Stone, Spin, The Village Voice, Slate and Lingua Franca. 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.
http://benratliff.net/
Patrick Higgins is an American avant-garde composer, guitarist, and producer from New York City, known for his work in experimental and contemporary classical music. He plays guitar and composes in the ensemble Zs, described by The New York Times as "one of the strongest avant-garde bands in New York." His work as composer traverses the styles of the European avant-garde and the tradition of post-minimalist Downtown New York music. Higgins runs Hudson, NY based recording studio Future-Past.
http://www.patrickhigginsmusic.com/
Relevant links: Every Song Ever, by Ben Ratliff