Nat Hentoff R.I.P.

[ghost of miles]

Nat Hentoff's son Nick has posted via Twitter that his father has passed away at the age of 91.

[mjzee]

Very sad.  RIP.

[Dmitry]

91 is a great run. He was writing on constitutional issues until the very recent months. RIP.

[duaneiac]

Not even a full week into the new year and the losses the jazz/music world suffered last year look likely to continue into this one.  Mr. Hentoff certainly did his part in advocating for the music he loved (as well as other issues he considered important).  May he Rest In Peace.

[jlhoots]

R.I.P.

Hope I make it to 91.

[sidewinder]

RIP - His writings on jazz were some of the earliest I remember reading, in the notes to the old Prestige 24000 twofers series. Thought they were brilliant even then. Sad that he won't be around any more but the fine text lives on.

[GA Russell]

RIP.  I liked him a lot.

[mjzee]

Obituary in The New York Times.

[medjuck]

In one of his books he says that what he was most proud of in the jazz world was his contribution to the tv show "The Sound of Jazz".  I was able to talk to him on the phone about it several months ago but he couldn't hear me very well and didn't really understand my questions.  I'm happy I did get to speak to him and tell him how much I admired his jazz writings. 

 

(BTW One of the things I asked about was why Lester Young appears with the Basie band on The Sound of Jazz record but not on the tv show.  My guess is that Lester was just not in good enough shape--he's sitting down during his great Fine and Mellow solo.)  

[JohnS]

Sad news. Always worth reading.  I havve a signed copy of his short novel "Call The Keeper".   Not to be overlooked his Candid productions.

[soulpope]

R.I.P ....

[brownie]

May he rest in peace. He deserves it...

He died while listening to Billie Holiday!

[Cyril]

R.I.P.

[Peter Friedman]

Very sorry to hear that Nat died. His writing about jazz was influential for me when I began to listen as a teenager. His Down Beat gig, his books,  his writing on jazz for other publications, and as one of the founders of Candid Records, Hentoff was an important voice for jazz.

Heard him speak once on constitutional issues at an American Civil Liberties Union conference.

[Teasing the Korean]

When I was a teenager buying jazz albums from the cutout bins, I always loved finding liner notes by Nat Hentoff on a new purchase.  I had no idea who he was, but I loved his writing, and I really felt like I was learning something.  RIP. 

[Big Beat Steve]

  On 1/8/2017 at 3:58 PM, Teasing the Korean said:

When I was a teenager buying jazz albums from the cutout bins, I always loved finding liner notes by Nat Hentoff on a new purchase.  I had no idea who he was, but I loved his writing, and I really felt like I was learning something.  RIP. 

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More or less same here.
In much the same way that Ira Gitler did he provided lots of interesting info on the back sleeves.

RIP.

[gmonahan]

"Hear Me Talkin to Ya" was one of the first jazz books I ever read, and I've enjoyed many a liner over the years. RIP.

 

 

gregmo

[Olie Brice]

"Hear Me Talkin' to Ya" is wonderful.  And via Candid he played a major role in making some of the greatest albums in the history of the music happen - "charles mingus presents charles mingus", "out from", "freedom now", vital early Cecil Taylor and Steve Lacy... massive contribution

[paul secor]

  On 1/8/2017 at 8:30 AM, brownie said:

May he rest in peace. He deserves it...

He died while listening to Billie Holiday!

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When you have to go, that's not a bad way to do it.

Thank you for your writing over the years, Mr. Hentoff. I'll miss you.

[Dan Gould]

And on a day when a Book Review publication declared they would boycott all Simon & Schuster imprints for the rest of the year to "protest" their signing of some author. Clearly we still need Nat Hentoff. RIP.

[mikeweil]

  On 1/8/2017 at 5:34 PM, gmonahan said:

"Hear Me Talkin to Ya" was one of the first jazz books I ever read, and I've enjoyed many a liner over the years. RIP.

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Same here, first the German edition, and later the original. I love his Candid productions. R.I.P. 

[Big Beat Steve]

  On 1/9/2017 at 11:15 AM, mikeweil said:

Same here, first the German edition, and later the original. I love his Candid productions. R.I.P. 

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Knew about the German translation but never saw it (it was OOP by the time I got into jazz) but bought a secondhand copy of the original UK printing in 1998 or so at a London secondhand bookseller - and reading it set the stage in an ideal way for Ira Gitler's "Swing To Bop" oral history that I bought not much later. Both desert-island reading matter.

[alankin]

Here is the obituary in the New York Times.  (The link above is to the Times' post of the AP obit.)

[JSngry]

Seems to me that he ran out of things to say about jazz a while back, but what he said until then remains notable. And as noted by all, his other endeavors were, and remain, notable and significant. And some of the most WTF! eye opening stuff I've ever heard has been his announcements on the very early Brubeck/Storyville bootlegs. He's downright silly (and somewhat intentionally), and it's a hoot!

RIP to somebody who never stopped being engaged with life.

[Big Beat Steve]

  On 1/9/2017 at 1:05 PM, JSngry said:

Seems to me that he ran out of things to say about jazz a while back, but what he said until then remains notable. ...

RIP to somebody who never stopped being engaged with life.

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This reminds me of the changes that underwent our national #1 jazz scribe, "jazz pope" Joachim Ernst Berendt - only that his engagement with life later on turned out to be a very special one when he went all esoteric.

As for Hentoff, maybe time to revisit the archives of his "Jazz Review" on the Jazz Studies site again?