Nate Chinen has performed with a young John Legend and once made Lady Gaga cry. He’s examined the cultural dynamics surrounding pop stars like Adele and Beyonce, and he’s persuaded New York Times readers to give Hawaiian music and culture more than just a passing glance.
The ease with which Chinen, 40, interacts with celebrities, expresses critical opinions in prose and speaks in front of an audience is “in my blood,” he said, thanks to his childhood as the son of Hawaii nightclub entertainers.
His parents were known professionally as Teddy and Nanci Tanaka. Teddy Chinen died in 2014; the writer’s mother lives in Waikiki.
After leaving Hawaii in the mid-1990s, Chinen now lives in suburban New York with his wife and two daughters. He spent 12 years as a freelance contributor for the Times covering the national contemporary jazz and pop music scenes along with occasional reporting on Hawaiian music and culture.
But the graduate of the University of Pennsylvania — where Chinen sang in an a cappella group with Legend before the latter’s music career took off — stepped away from his Times gig last month when public radio station WBGO-FM in Newark, N.J., hired him to serve as director of editorial content.
After teaching a class on “The History of American Song” last week as the visiting Tam Young Performing Arts Chair at ‘Iolani School, Chinen sat down near a group of seniors and marveled at how much the campus community has changed — and stayed the same — since he earned his high school diploma there nearly 25 years ago.
“I see my mission, whenever I come here, as I’m trying to blow apart the shelter a little bit and say, ‘You guys realize there’s all this stuff happening and you need to think about a world that’s broader than just ‘Iolani, broader than the bubble we’re all in here?’
“It’s a great privilege and responsibility,” said Chinen.
He shared more about his upbringing and career in an interview.
QUESTION: For those who aren’t familiar with your parents, can you talk about their role in the local entertainment community?
ANSWER: Teddy and Nanci Tanaka were popular entertainers here in the 1970s and ’80s. Back in the day they did a lot of nightclub work. They weren’t Hawaiian musicians, but they were an integral part of the local entertainment ecology — my dad, especially, because he grew up here.
My dad, he really knew everybody. Whether you’re talking about Ohta-san or the Rev. (Dennis) Kamakahi or even Bruddah Iz, these were people my dad had relationships with.
So I didn’t grow up super plugged into Hawaiian music necessarily, but by virtue of being part of this community, I didn’t realize until I left how deep it ran in me.
Q: Do you have a lot of memories from that time period?
A: I definitely remember (my parents performing at) the Ilikai. They would also go to L.A., so some of my earliest memories are of that. I was like 3 years old, and my grandmother would have me on her lap at the bar. And there was always a moment when it was my turn to get on stage and they’d bring me up.
The experiences that I had as their kid, growing up crawling around the floor of the musicians union when they were rehearsing, being around other musicians and hearing them interact with each other, it was all very appealing.
Q: What lessons did you take away from those experiences?
A: I’ve seen what it looks like to have that one thing that if you don’t do it, you’ll die. And for me, that wasn’t performing. That wasn’t singing. And even though I thought I was going to be a jazz drummer and got pretty far down that road, I realized that I had the capacity and potential to contribute at a really high level as an observer of this music and as a critic.
Q: How did your parents react when they realized you weren’t going to follow in their footsteps?
A: It’s a very different path than the ones my parents took. I decided to become a poetry major (in college). My parents were not super happy about that. It was like the only thing that was less practical than becoming a musician was becoming a poet. But I just fell in love with it.
Q: If you didn’t pursue journalism in high school or college, how did you end up realizing it was the career you wanted?
A: The summer after my sophomore year in college, I decided to stay in Philly … and then I started an internship at the Philadelphia City Paper. After a month in the newsroom and getting to know everybody, I realized I could write. And I really liked reporting but I especially liked criticism.
Q: For more than a decade you were The New York Times’ go-to reporter when it came to deciphering Hawaiian music and the artists who created it. Was there ever a coming-of-age moment when you realized you’d arrived on the national stage?
A: The first one may have been a big story in (The New York Times’) Arts & Leisure (section) about the Hawaiian Grammy. This was when Daniel Ho Productions dominated the category, so I wrote about sort of the lock that slack-key compilations had.
I talked to a lot of people, and I feel really proud about my work on that story because it was shining a light on a debate that was very familiar to people here but also one nobody outside Hawaii knew anything about.
Q: You took on a diminished role as a freelance contributor to The New York Times earlier this year in order to accept a full-time position with Newark Public Radio. What does your new job entail?
A: WBGO is one of the leading jazz radio stations in the country. About a year or so ago, National Public Radio decided they needed a much more concerted jazz effort … and said WBGO should be their station partner. As the director of editorial content, I’m basically running WBGO.org.
Most of what I’m doing is writing for (the website), which also is picked up by NPR for their use online. But I was just on the air with “All Things Considered,” and that’s going to become an ongoing relationship. Because I’ve spent all this time being a writer and it’s all sort of about words on a page, I haven’t really been a public figure in the way my parents were. But I grew up getting on a microphone, and I’m very comfortable with that.
Q: Has the new editorial direction been embraced by listeners?
A: I’ll be honest. It’s an experiment and it’s still really young. We’re not even six weeks into it, and even people in the jazz community aren’t really getting it yet. It feels in certain respects like a startup. It’s exciting, actually. There’s a really great program called “Jazz Night in America,” which is a co-production of WBGO and NPR, so I’m now part of the editorial team that is putting together this nationally syndicated show that includes video as well.
Q: This is now your third stint as the Tam Young Performing Arts Chair at ‘Iolani. Why do you keep coming back?
A: This opportunity is all about broadening horizons and showing what’s possible other than the straight and narrow. My own story isn’t straight and narrow. I didn’t know I was going to do this. All I knew is that I didn’t want to become an engineer. I was not headed for law school. I was not headed to become a doctor.
With the Tam Young Performing Arts Chair, it’s real hands-on exposure to people who are working in the arts and are able to bring a different perspective. What’s really valuable about my visit to the students seems to be the connection, just this understanding that I’ve done this. It’s relatable and meaningful.
———
NATE CHINEN’S FAVORITE HAWAIIAN MUSIC ARTISTS
>> Gabby Pahinui
>> Amy Hanaiali‘i Gilliom
>> HAPA (original duo of Barry Flanagan and Kelii Kanealii)
>> Harold Chang (drummer for Arthur Lyman and Chinen’s first drum teacher)
CONTEMPORARY JAZZ ARTISTS TO WATCH
>> Pianist Jason Moran
>> Singer Cecile McLorin Salvant
>> Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire
