Nathan Irving "
Nat"
Hentoff (June 10, 1925 – January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist,
jazz and
country music critic, and
syndicated columnist for
United Media. Hentoff was the
jazz critic for
The Village Voice from 1958 to 2009.
[2] Following his departure from
The Village Voice, Hentoff moved his music column to
The Wall Street Journal, who published his work until his death.
Hentoff was formerly a columnist for
Down Beat,
JazzTimes,
Legal Times,
The Washington Post,
The Washington Times,
The Progressive,
Editor & Publisher and
Free Inquiry. He was a
staff writer for
The New Yorker, and his writing was also published in
The New York Times,
Jewish World Review,
The Atlantic,
The New Republic,
Commonweal and in the Italian
Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo.
Hentoff began a career in broadcast journalism in the closing days of
World War II on
WMEX, a Boston radio station. Among his early assignments were live broadcasts of professional wrestling from the old
Boston Arena. In the late 1940s, he hosted two radio shows on WMEX:
JazzAlbum and
From Bach To Bartók. Hentoff continued to do a jazz program on WMEX into the early 1950s, and during that period was an
announcer on
WGBH-FM on a program called
Evolution of Jazz. By the late 1950s, Hentoff was co-hosting a program called
The Scope of Jazz on
WBAI-FM in New York City.
[7]
He joined
Down Beat magazine as a columnist in 1952.
[8] From 1953 through 1957, he was an associate editor of
Down Beat. In 1958 he co-founded
The Jazz Review, a magazine that he co-edited with
Martin Williams until 1961. In June 1955, Hentoff co-authored with
Nat Shapiro Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz by the Men Who Made It. The book features interviews with jazz musicians such as
Dizzy Gillespie,
Duke Ellington and
Paul Whiteman. Hentoff went on to author numerous other books on jazz and politics.
In 1960, Hentoff served as the
A&R director of the short-lived jazz label
Candid Records, which released albums by
Charles Mingus,
Cecil Taylor and
Max Roach, among others.
In 2002, Hentoff became a member of the Board of Directors of The
Jazz Foundation of America.
[9] He has worked with the foundation to help save homes and lives of America's elderly jazz and
blues musicians, including musicians who survived
Hurricane Katrina. Hentoff has written multiple articles to draw attention to the plight of America's pioneering musicians of jazz and blues. These articles were published in the
Wall Street Journal[10] and the
Village Voice.
[11]
Hentoff was known as a
civil libertarian,
free speech activist, anti-
death penalty advocate and
anti-abortion advocate. He supported the
2003 invasion of Iraq; he supported Israel's right to exist, but opposed Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory.
In June 1970, he criticized
Ted Sorensen, who was running in the primary election for the Democratic nomination for
U.S. Senator from New York, because Sorensen had lived for a time at the "restricted"
New York Athletic Club, writing: "what kind of man would
choose to live in one of this city's redoubts of bigotry?"
[17]
Hentoff espoused generally
liberal views on
domestic policy and civil liberties, but in the 1980s, he began articulating more
socially conservative positions—opposition to abortion, voluntary euthanasia, and the selective medical treatment of severely disabled infants. Hentoff argued that a
consistent life ethic should be the viewpoint of a genuine civil libertarian, arguing that all
human rights are at risk when the rights of any one group of people are diminished, that human rights are interconnected, and people deny others' human rights at their own peril.
[18]
While at one time a longtime supporter of the
American Civil Liberties Union, Hentoff became a vocal critic of the organization for its advocacy of government-enforced university and workplace
speech codes.
[19] He served on the board of advisors for the
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, another
civil liberties group. Hentoff's book
Free Speech for Me—But Not for Thee outlines his views on
free speech and excoriates those whom he feels favor censorship in any form.
Hentoff was critical of
Bush Administration policies such as the
Patriot Act and other civil liberties implications of the recent push for
homeland security. He was also strongly critical of
Clinton Administration policies such as the
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.
Starting in March and April 2003,
Saddam Hussein was deposed in a U.S.-led invasion and
Iraq war. In summer 2003, Hentoff wrote a column for the
Washington Times in which he supported
Tony Blair's claimed justifications for the war.[
citation needed] He also criticized the
Democratic Party for casting doubt on President Bush's
pre-war assertions about Iraq's alleged
weapons of mass destruction in an
election year.
An ardent critic of the Bush administration's expansion of presidential power, Hentoff in 2008 called for the new president to deal with the "noxious residue of the Bush-Cheney war against terrorism". Among the national security casualties have been, according to Hentoff, "survivors, if they can be found, of CIA secret prisons ("
black sites"); victims of CIA kidnapping renditions; and American citizens locked up indefinitely as "unlawful enemy combatants".
[20] He advocated prosecuting members of the Bush administration, including lawyer
John Yoo, for
war crimes.
[21]
Hentoff vigorously criticized the judicial
gag order involved in the "
Fistgate" controversy.
[22]
In an April 2008 column, Hentoff stated that while he had been prepared to enthusiastically support
Barack Obama in the
2008 U.S. presidential election, his view changed after looking into Obama's voting record on abortion. During President Obama's first year, Hentoff praised him for ending policies of
CIA renditions, but has criticized him for failing to fully end
George W. Bush's practice of state torture of prisoners.
[23]
In a May 2014, column titled
My Pro-Constitution Choice for President, Hentoff voiced his support for Kentucky Senator
Rand Paul's potential
2016 run for president. Hentoff cited Paul's support for civil liberties, particularly his stand against the indefinite detention clauses in the
National Defense Authorization Act as well as Paul's opposition to the Obama administration's use of drones against American citizens.
[24]
On December 31, 2008, the
Village Voice, which had regularly published Hentoff's commentary and criticism for fifty years, announced that he had been laid off.
[12] In February 2009, Hentoff joined the
libertarian Cato Institute as a senior fellow.
[13] In January 2010, however, Hentoff returned and wrote one article for the
Voice. Beginning in February 2008, Hentoff was a weekly contributing columnist at
WorldNetDaily.com.
[14]
In 2013, a biographical film about Hentoff, entitled
The Pleasures of Being Out of Step explored his career in jazz and as a first amendment advocate. The independent documentary, directed by journalist David L. Lewis,
[4][15] won the grand jury prize in the Metropolis competition at the DOC NYC festival
[16] and played in theaters across the country.[
citation needed]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Hentoff