Esteemed jazz writer Nat Hentoff has been laid off by the Village Voice, the weekly paper for which he has been writing since 1958. New Times Media, a large publisher of weekly publications, bought the Village Voice in 2005, and has laid off about half of its staff since the sale. It has been having advertising revenue problems, perhaps exacerbated by the troubled economy.
Hentoff began his career in jazz journalism as an associate editor of Down Beat magazine in 1953. His far-flung support for the music has involved producing albums as A&R director for the Candid label in the early 1960s, writing liner notes for dozens of artists, authoring books on jazz, and writing columns in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and Jazz Times.
Hentoff, who is 83, is awaiting the publication of his new book, “At the Jazz Band Ball: 60 Years on the Jazz Scene," and will contribute columns to the Wall Street Journal and the United Media syndicate.
Image © Tom Pich / tompich.com
Comments
Well, it’s official. The Voice is dead.
As the American way of life crumbles in front of our eyes. Save you pennies, folks
that’s just wrong…
The Voice has been dead since Murdoch bought it so long ago!
I was one of the early subscribers in the fifties when Nat helped to make the paper work,both from a jazz standpoint,but also by his brilliant political defense of the Constitution in the 60’s!
Nat,you are one of my most important heroes;please keep writing about America—-and Jazz!
Bob Reisner who, before his passing, was a wonderful writer for the VV. Reisner was the author of “Bird” the Legend of charlie Parker.
The firing of Nat Hentoff signals the end of VV as the voice of culture in the NY community. I knew them both in my listening and playing experiences in the Greenwich Village of Long Ago… Rai Anderson