Nat Hentoff was a music writer, journalist, and critic who wrote extensively about jazz, blues, and folk music. He was also a civil liberties advocate and a novelist. Hentoff was born in Boston in 1925 and began writing for Down Beat magazine in 1952. He wrote for The Village Voice from 1958 to 2009 and authored over 25 books on music and culture. He was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame in 2005.