Gleason joined the San Francisco Chronicle at the end of the 1940s, and while there inaugurated the first regular coverage of pop and jazz music. He did interviews with Hank Williams, Elvis, Fats Domino all the top popular artists of the 40s and early 50s, plus all the jazz people. He wrote a daily column for the Chronicle for most of the 60s; he remained on-staff at the Chronicle for twenty-five years.

From February 1950, when he began regularly writing for the Chronicle, Gleason was the first critic anywhere to review opening nights of club appearances by folk groups, pop artists and jazz combos, as well as their concerts, with the same attention and space as was given to classical music.

For ten years, Gleason wrote syndicated weekly columns on jazz and pop music which ran in the New York Post and many other papers throughout the United States and Europe. In the early 50s Gleason was a correspondent for Variety. For twelve years he was an associate editor and columnist, as well as critic, for Down Beat and was for five years a contributing editor and writer for Stereo Review.

Gleason was one of the first writers to recognize the importance of Lenny Bruce, as well as of Bob Dylan and Miles Davis, and his articles and reviews of their performances set the view of their work which has prevailed.

His articles appeared in many and varied publications over the years: The New York Times (Op-Ed page), Manchester Guardian, London Times, New Statesman, Evergreen Review, New York Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Sydney Herald, Playboy, Esquire, Show, Jazz N Pops, and Paesa Serra (Italy). He contributed to the Britannica Yearbook and the World Book Encyclopedia. His articles and essays were reprinted in numerous anthologies and textbooks on music and American culture.

Gleason taught at the University of California at Berkeley Extension Campus and at Sonoma State College, and lectured in many areas of the country.  He was an advisor for the Monterey Jazz Festival, the University of California Jazz Festival, the Stanford Jazz Year (l966-l967) and the Monterey Pop Festival.

Gleason also served as an editor for Ramparts and Sunday Ramparts, and as a disc-jockey on KHIP and KMPX in San Francisco in the l960s.

In l940, Gleason was one of the founders and editors of Jazz Information, the first jazz magazine in the United States.  In l957 he was editor and publisher of Jazz, A Quarterly of American Music.  Both ventures were aesthetic successes but commercial failures.

In l967, Gleason co-founded the bi-weekly music and news magazine Rolling Stone.  He was an editor, columnist and critic for Rolling Stone until his death in l975.

In l957 he edited a collection of his own writings and those of others under the title "Jam Session" (Putnam).  In l968 he published "The San Francisco Sound" (Ballantine), which dealt with such rock groups as Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. In l975, he published "Celebrating the Duke, & Louis, Bessie, Billie, Bird, Carmen, Miles, Dizzy & Other Heroes" (Atlantic/Little Brown). With a foreword by Studs Terkel, this book contained many of Gleason's most insightful writings about these artists, and was published in both hard and soft cover.

Between l961-68, Gleason created and produced Jazz Casual, a 28-episode television series on jazz and blues, which originally aired in the U.S. on the National Educational Television Network. He also created and produced two one-hour documentary films on Duke Ellington, "Love You Madly" and "A Concert Of Sacred Music At Grace Cathedral", both of which were nominated for Emmys. His other films for television included a four-part series on the 1967 10^th Anniversary Monterey Jazz Festival, and the first documentary for television on pop music, "Anatomy Of A Hit", and a two-part performance documentary on San Francisco rock music entitled "Go Ride The Music" and "A Night At The Family Dog".

Gleason was a Vice-President of Fantasy/Prestige/Milestone Records and acted as Executive Producer on the feature film "Payday", starring Rip Torn.

Gleason was a three-time winner of the Deems Taylor Award, a yearly honor bestowed by ASCAP for Excellence in Music Journalism. His article "Jazz, Black Art, Black Music", (printed in Lithopinion) won in l967; his tribute to Louis Armstrong (from Rolling Stone) won in l973 and his Duke Ellington obituary (also from Rolling Stone) won in l975. Gleason's liner notes were twice nominated for Grammy awards: one for Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" and another for "Duke Ellington's Golden Years".

Ralph J. Gleason died of a heart attack, on June 2, 1975, in Berkeley, California.