Nate Chinen
Editorial DirectorNate Chinen has been writing about music for more than 25 years. He spent a dozen of them working as a critic for The New York Times, and helmed a long-running column for JazzTimes. As Editorial Director at WRTI, he oversees a range of classical and jazz coverage, and contributes regularly to NPR.
A 13-time winner of the Helen Dance–Robert Palmer Award for Excellence in Writing, presented by the Jazz Journalists Association, Nate is the author of Playing Changes: Jazz For the New Century, recognized as one of the best books of 2018 by NPR, GQ, Billboard and JazzTimes. He is also coauthor of Myself Among Others: A Life in Music, the award-winning 2003 autobiography of festival impresario and producer George Wein.
Nate maintains a newsletter, The Gig, at Substack. His work also appears in Best Music Writing 2011, Pop When the World Falls Apart: Music in the Shadow of Doubt (Duke University Press, 2012), and Miles Davis: The Complete Illustrated History (Voyageur Press, 2012).
Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Nate started his career as a music critic in 1996, at the Philadelphia City Paper. There he covered one of the great jazz cities at ground level, writing a steady stream of reviews and features, along with a biweekly column.
He moved to New York City in 1998, and began writing for a range of publications, including DownBeat, Blender, and Vibe. For several years he was the jazz critic for Weekend America, a syndicated radio program. He covered jazz for the Village Voice from 2003 through 2005, when he became a regular contributor to The New York Times. Around the same time, he started his monthly JazzTimes column, The Gig, which ran in 125 consecutive installments.
From 2017 until August 2022, Nate was Director of Editorial Content at Newark Public Radio — managing the full spectrum of editorial coverage at wbgo.org, and serving as a consulting producer for Jazz Night in America, a multimedia program hosted by Christian McBride. He also joined radio veteran Greg Bryant there as co-creator and co-host of Jazz United, which won the JJA’s award for Podcast of the Year in each of its two seasons.
Nate lives in Wynnewood, PA with his wife and two daughters.
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Sonny Rollins is turning 95: a great excuse to toast one of our finest living jazz artists. So in this special episode of The Late Set, Josh Jackson and Nate Chinen are joined by a handful of WRTI’s on-air hosts -
In Moment's Notice this week: singer Laurin Talese graces the Barnes Foundation's First Friday series, Kassa Overall brings 'CREAM' to Solar Myth, and jazz enlivens the Doylestown Arts Festival. -
This week's Moment's Notice sees a continuation of the Club Patio Jazz Day in Fort Washington, a special visit from South Africa by the Bokani Dyer Trio, a free concert by the Stanley Clarke Band in Camden and more. -
Under the Surface represents a creative breakthrough for pianist and composer Sumi Tonooka. She made the suite for the Alchemy Sound Project, inspired by the underground network that nourishes trees, and serves as a sustaining model. -
For Leonard Bernstein, a dog was always man's best friend. So it's only fitting that the conductor's birthday falls next to National Dog Day — a prompt to consider some lively music Bernstein composed with particular pooches in mind. -
"Live at the Village Vanguard" is one of the most familiar phrases in the jazz discography, a marker of place and a point of pride. But why? Together we’ve logged hundreds of hours in the club, so let's talk about it. Tumble down those stairs with us and listen up! -
This week's Moment's Notice features artists in places we don't often see: Snarky Puppy at Longwood Gardens, the Hiruy Tirfe Quartet at Love City Brewing, Bobby Zankel and the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound at Hawthorne Park and more. -
What is your ideal summer-jazz heat signature? Cool and refreshing, like a standard sung by Stacey Kent? Or bright and blazing, like an uptempo blues by the Marel Hidalgo Organ Trio? -
David F. Gibson, whose precise and hard-driving beat powered legacy editions of the Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Cab Calloway orchestras, and other bands big and small, died on July 30. He was 72. -
On his fine new Blue Note album, Words Fall Short, saxophonist Joshua Redman introduces a band full of up-and-comers, including Philly’s own Nazir Ebo. This young cohort reminded us of a conversation The Late Set had with Redman in the fall of 2023. We're sharing it again with you now.
