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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Who said you can never go home again? This week we have resounding evidence to the contrary. -
Mark Turner is a modern master, a tenor saxophonist whose influence on the jazz tradition can hardly be overstated. So we're thrilled to talk with him about his new ECM album, Patternmaster, and some of the speculative fiction (and actual music) that inspired it. -
March is here, and with it we kick off Women’s History Month in high style, while welcoming some marquee talent from out of town. -
Kurt Elling has lately been earning ovations on Broadway, but he hits Philly with pianist Christian Sands, as on their duo album 'Wildflowers, Vol. 3.' -
Edward Gorey's classic children's book The Gashlycrumb Tinies inspired Carla Kihlstedt to create a song cycle for singing violinist and chamber orchestra. She's about to perform that piece, 26 Little Deaths, twice in the Philadelphia area, courtesy of Network for New Music. -
A dozen distinguished artists have just joined the second cohort of Jazz Legacies Fellows, according to an announcement by The Mellon Foundation and the Jazz Foundation of America. -
Search high and low, in this world and beyond, and you won't ever find another Sun Ra. So we're excited about the broadcast premiere of Sun Ra: Do the Impossible on PBS. Our own Nate Chinen is a commentator in the film — and so is our guest this episode, the author and critic Marcus J. Moore, who brings a multilayered appreciation of Sun Ra's artistry to our conversation. Space is the Place!
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The week ahead bodes auspiciously for fans of vocal jazz, with at least four terrific shows around town. -
This week's lineup is jam-packed, featuring performances from Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble, Mohini Dey, Patti Austin, and more. -
WRTI will celebrate Opening Day of the Winter Games with a handful of apt musical cues, including the latest from Lang Lang, who graces the Opening Ceremony in Milano.
