Newspaper Columnist, Author. Born Nathan Irving Hentoff, he was a well known long time newspaper columnist and famed jazz critic. He graduated with high honors from Northeastern University and did his graduate work at Harvard University. He worked as a teen for Frances Sweeney at the "Boston City Reporter". He started hosting jazz shows on radio and then became a columnist for "Down Beat" magazine in 1952. In 1958, he co-founded the magazine "The Jazz Review" and began his long stretch working for the newspaper "Village Voice". He served as the jazz critic and columnist for the newspaper and continued in this position until 2009. During his career he was known as a civil libertarian and often wrote about issues such as freedom of speech. He was the author of over 30 books during his career, which included his novel "The Day They Came to Arrest the Book" in 1982 that took on the issue of censorship and the first amendment. Even though he took liberal positions on domestic policy and civil liberties, by the early 1980s he espoused more socially conservative positions - opposition to abortion, voluntary euthanasia, and the selective medical treatment of severely disabled infants. On December 31, 2008, he was laid off from the "Village Voice" and he moved his music column to the Wall Street Journal where it continued until his passing. He also wrote album liner notes for various musicians including Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Charlie Mingus. In 2004, he was the first non-musician to be named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment of the Arts. A documentary about his life was produced in 2014.
Newspaper Columnist, Author. Born Nathan Irving Hentoff, he was a well known long time newspaper columnist and famed jazz critic. He graduated with high honors from Northeastern University and did his graduate work at Harvard University. He worked as a teen for Frances Sweeney at the "Boston City Reporter". He started hosting jazz shows on radio and then became a columnist for "Down Beat" magazine in 1952. In 1958, he co-founded the magazine "The Jazz Review" and began his long stretch working for the newspaper "Village Voice". He served as the jazz critic and columnist for the newspaper and continued in this position until 2009. During his career he was known as a civil libertarian and often wrote about issues such as freedom of speech. He was the author of over 30 books during his career, which included his novel "The Day They Came to Arrest the Book" in 1982 that took on the issue of censorship and the first amendment. Even though he took liberal positions on domestic policy and civil liberties, by the early 1980s he espoused more socially conservative positions - opposition to abortion, voluntary euthanasia, and the selective medical treatment of severely disabled infants. On December 31, 2008, he was laid off from the "Village Voice" and he moved his music column to the Wall Street Journal where it continued until his passing. He also wrote album liner notes for various musicians including Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Charlie Mingus. In 2004, he was the first non-musician to be named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment of the Arts. A documentary about his life was produced in 2014.
Bio by: Mr. Badger Hawkeye
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