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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"We're celebrating artists who are going to continue to make an imprint on the field," Ashley Ferro-Murray, program director for the arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, tells WRTI. Two such artists are harpist Brandee Younger and drummer Kassa Overall, who are among the 2025 Doris Duke Artists. -
From his seat at the piano, Andy Bey sang with a hushed interiority that could make a listener feel as if he were exchanging confidences. He died on April 26, at 85. -
Violinist Jenny Scheinman grew up along Northern California’s so-called Lost Coast, and she carries its rustic charm and mystique in her music — even when it assumes a form as elegant as the songs on All Species Parade, her recent double album. She talks with Josh Jackson about the album and other matters before a recent performance with her band at Solar Myth. -
This week's Moment's Notice brings myriad options to the table for Philadelphia's jazz listeners, including BADBADNOTGOOD, Red Baraat, Lee Ranaldo & Leila Bordreuil, and more. -
Hear the first single from Joshua Redman's new album, a ruminative piece called "A Message to Unsend." For Redman, it's a testament to the judicious restraint of a dynamic young band. -
For Farrah Rahaman, the scholar bringing Immanuel Wilkins to the Penn campus, his project Blues Blood "feels big and stirring like the ocean." That seems even truer with the venerable poet Sonia Sanchez and author Imani Perry in the mix. -
This week's Moment's Notice brings us a special new event - the Germantown Jazz Festival. Beyond that, performances from fantastic young artists, such as Zoh Amba, Immanuel Wilkins and Isaiah Collier, will be touching down in other parts of the city. -
Few events embody the act of listening and receiving quite like the Big Ears Festival. In this episode, Nate reports back from the fest, and shares an interview with two artists who performed there: trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and pianist Vijay Iyer, who have a new duo album called Defiant Life. -
A pair of experimental-music titans join forces this weekend, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Also in Moment's Notice this week: trumpeter Terell Stafford blows up Notsolatin, and the bright young singer Julia Danielle rolls into Chris' Jazz Cafe. -
In Moment's Notice this week: The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis pay homage to Sonny Sharrock, Minas celebrates its 40th anniversary, Marshall Allen basks in a world record, and Jenny Scheinman leads a musical parade.
