Ronald Atkins: 01/06/1936 – 19/03/2025

Ronald Atkins, who was The Guardian's jazz correspondent for over 30 years, died on 19 March 2025, age 89. Growing up through the post war trad jazz revivalist era where he was a school band clarinettist, he discovered bebop and began writing for Albert 'Mac' McCarthy's Jazz Monthly magazine in 1957 before working for Carlo Krahmer's Esquire jazz label. He started reviewing jazz for The Guardian in the mid-1960s, which he eventually combined with a civil service day job.

During 1966 he was involved with the short-lived London Free School started by Melody Maker photographer John 'Hoppy' Hopkins and early Pink Floyd manager Pete Jenner, which led to the birth of underground paper International Times and the UK counterculture. Guardian and Jazzwise writer John Fordham says, "I owe it all to Ron for shoehorning me into The Guardian gig in 1978 when his civil service work got too demanding to do so many late nights as a jazz reviewer," and the two shared the paper's jazz coverage until Atkins moved to Lewes around the turn of the millennium.

A quiet, modest but highly knowledgeable and accomplished writer from bebop to free jazz, Ron was always a friendly and encouraging presence at gigs when I started writing about jazz. Over the years he also wrote for Jazz On CD, Jazz Express, Jazz Review and Tribune, and contributed to jazz books, including Jazz On Record, the Rough Guide's Jazz - 100 Essential CDs and his own, Jazz - The Ultimate Guide.