About Gene
A former Fulbright scholar, book editor, and musician, Gene Santoro (1950-2022) was the music critic at the New York Daily News and a columnist at The Nation and Chamber Music. He also wrote articles and essays for The Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, The Village Voice, Spin, Rolling Stone, Down Beat, Guitar World, Guitar Player, Pulse, Billboard, 7 Days, and many other publications.
Gene was the author of several books, including Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus (finalist for the 2001 Ralph J. Gleason Awards as well as the 2001 Jazz Journalists Association Awards), Highway 61 Revisited, Dancing in Your Head, and Stir It Up. He co-authored and edited The Guitar: The History, The Music, The Players.
His essays also appeared in numerous collections, such as The Miles Davis Reader, The Show I’ll Never Forget, Best Music Writing of 2004, American Rebels, The Thelonious Monk Reader, The B.B. King Companion, The Jimi Hendrix Companion, Mass Culture and Everyday Life, and The Oxford Companion to Jazz.
He wrote about music for the New York Daily News. He has been a columnist at Chamber Music, The Nation, 7 Days, Taxi, and Pulse!, and has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Post, New Yorker, New York, Time, People, The Village Voice, Spin, Pulse!, Rolling Stone, Down Beat, Musician, Guitar Player, Discover, and Business 2.0, among others.
His first serious gig writing about music was as Senior Editor at Guitar World, where he interviewed legendary pickers like Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Lonnie Mack, Ron Wood, Link Wray, Brian Setzer, and Leslie West; wrote 85% of a hugely successful special issue devoted to Jimi Hendrix; and authored "Wax Museum" columns about the music, techniques, and discographies of stellar historical pickers like Eddie Lang, Charlie Christian, James Burton, and Mickey Baker.
As an editor-writer at Pulse!, he interviewed dozens of musical greats like Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, the Neville Brothers, the Rolling Stones, Keith Jarrett, Dwight Yoakam, the Blasters, Los Lobos, k.d. lang, and Astor Piazzolla.
His work was translated into German, Japanese, Brazilian, Spanish, Italian, and French. He started playing guitar when he was eight, and his career highlights included the chance to jam with childhood idols like Keith Richards.
Gene passed away on April 27, 2022 from esophageal cancer.