Mark Ruffin

Since 2007, Ruffin has been the Program Director and On-Air host for Sirius XM's Real Jazz channel. 1980–2000, he started as an operations engineer at WBEZ-FM/Chicago. In 1980, he got his first on-air opportunity through the Jazz Institute of Chicago. From there: 1981–1985, Jazz Music Director WDCB/Glen Ellyn, 1985–1988, Music Director-WBEE-AM/Chicago, 1988–1996, Producer/Announcer WNUA/Chicago. 1996–2000, Announcer/Producer WBEZ/Chicago. 2002–2007, Ruffin joined Miles Ahead Incorporated which produced, Miles Ahead and Listen Here, two syndicated shows featuring him and Grammy Award-winning annotator and broadcaster Neil Tesser. The latter show was distributed by WFMT Satellite Network and was heard on up to 120 stations in the U.S. and Canada.[9]

Ruffin was the original producer of the nationally syndicated Ramsey Lewis Show[10] which was distributed by Westwood One in the 1990s. Since that time he has produced nationally syndicated programs for Oprah Winfrey,[11] Gayle King, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Dr. Robin Smith, Bruce Lundvall, Marcus Miller,[12] Christian McBride,[12] Don Was,[12] Joey DeFrancesco and others.[12]

2000–2007 Ruffin was a cultural correspondent for the Chicago PBS television station WTTW-TV. His pieces on Jazz and American culture were presented on the televisions shows Artbeat Chicago and Chicago Tonight. He won[2][1] two Emmy Awards while at WTTW. 2014–2017 Ruffin was a recurrent moderator and host of the AOL Build Speaker Series where he was featured interviewing a number of personalities including Don Cheadle, Jon Batiste, Harry Connick Jr., Herb Alpert and many others.[13]

Ruffin was the Jazz Editor of Chicago Magazine from 1982 to 2007, Contributor at Down Beat Magazine 1985–2005, Jazz Stringer at Chicago Sun-Times 1989–1997, Music Editor at N'Digo Magazine 1995–2005 and contributed to Jazziz, JazzUSA.com,[14] Playboy, Ebony, Illinois Entertainer and many other publications.[15]

Ruffin has numerous annotation credits.[10]

• 1987 Frank Mantooth – Per-Se-Vere[10]
• 1988 Rush Hour – Bumper To Bumper[10]
• 1989 Frank Mantooth – Suite Tooth[10]

• 1998 Ron Miller – Sleepless (w/ Kevin Patrick & Steve Watkins)
• 2001 George Freeman – At Long Last Love
• 2003 Barbara Sfraga – Under The Moon
• 2011 Giacomo Gates – The Revolution Will Be Jazz: Songs of Gil Scott-Heron[10][16]
• 2013 Taeko Fukao – Wonderland (w/ Taeko Fukao)[17]
• 2013 Giacomo Gates – Miles Tones[10]
• 2013 Rene Marie – I Wanna Be Evil; With Love to Eartha Kitt (w/ Rene Marie & Quentin Baxter)(Grammy Nominated[3])
• 2015 Giacomo Gates – Everything Is Cool (w/ Giacomo Gates)[10]
• 2015 Charenee Wade – Offering: The Music of Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson[18]
• 2017 George Freeman – 90 Going On Amazing (w/ Kevin Patrick)
• 2017 Giacomo Gates – What Time Is It (w/ Giacomo Gates)[10]
• 2018 Lauren Henderson – Armame
• 2019 Carolyn Fitzhugh – Living in Peace

• 1997 Tangled[19]
• 2004 A War On All Fronts: Life & Times of Robert R. McCormick (WTTW/PBS)
• 2005 Mackinac Island: Mecca of the Midwest (WTTW/PBS)
• 2017 The Drowning