The Jazz Journalists Association has launched celebration of its 2023 slate of Jazz Heroes — 36 people in 32 U.S. cities who are “activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz,” aka the “A Team,” in the words that founded this honor in 2001.
Nominated by members of grass-roots communities this year ranging from Albuquerque to Wilmington, NC, the San Francisco Bay Area to the Upper Valley between New Hampshire and Vermont, and many points in-between, Jazz Heroes are vetted by a committee led by JJA board member Susan Brink (Jazz Hero, 2020) and after months of research, a selection representative of the many worthy nominees is confirmed by the board of the JJA. The class of 2023 comprises career-long professors at major educational institutions and independent mentors providing lessons and sometimes instruments in underserved neighborhoods, pre-K to adult; curators, presenters, entrepreneurs, service and support organization administrators, preservationists and story-telling chroniclers who go all-out in support of jazz for the benefit of their communities.
Jazz Heroes’ portraits and personality profiles are featured at www.JJAJazzAwards.org along with the Heroes Mosaic, suitable for use as a digital asset. The Heroes will receive personalized statuettes at events within their locales at events tba during summer 2023.
Sponsors for the JJA Jazz Heroes and upcoming 28th annual Jazz Awards – nominations to be announced mid-April, followed by announcement of winners in May, and an online extravaganza at the JJA’s virtual reality BashHouse — include the Joyce and George Wein Foundation, Berklee College of Music, The Jazz Foundation of America, Arkadia Records, Braithwaite & Katz Communications, Carolyn McClair Public Relations and Sue Auclair Promotions.
The 2023 Heroes are:
Albuquerque – Mark Weber, radio-show host, writer-photographer, record producer
Atlanta – Dr. Gordon Vernick, trumpeter and educator at George State University
Austin – Pedro Moreno, founder of Epistrophy Arts
Baltimore – Eric Kennedy, drummer and pre-K-to-college teacher/mentor
Boston – Carolyn J. Kelley, Jazz All Ways/Jazz Boston
Bronx – Judith Insell, Bronx Arts Ensemble director/programmer, violist
Brooklyn – Andrew Drury, drummer, Continuum Arts & Culture
Chicago — Carlos Flores, Chicago Latin Jazz Festival curator
Cleveland – Gabriel Pollack, Bop Stop, Cleveland Museum of Art
Dallas – Freddie Jones, trumpeter, founder of Trumpets4Kids
Denver – Tenia Nelson, keyboardist-educator, A Gift of Jazz board member
Detroit – Rodney Whitaker, bassist and educator
Hartford – Joe Morris, guitarist/mentor
Indianapolis – Herman “Butch” Slaughter and Kyle Long, preservationists on radio
Los Angeles – LeRoy Downs and Frederick Smith, Jr., Just Jazz media partners
Minneapolis-St. Paul – Janis Lane-Ewart, public radio stalwart
Missoula – Naomi Moon Siegel, trombonist, Lakebottom Sounds
New Hampshire-Vermont Upper Valley – Fred Haas and Sabrina Brown, Interplay Jazz & Arts Camp
Morristown – Gwen Kelley, HotHouse magazine publisher
New Orleans – Luther S. Gray, percussion and parade culture preservationist
New York City – Brice Rosenbloom, Boom Collective producer
Philadelphia – Homer Jackson, Executive Director, Philadelphia Jazz Project
Pittsburgh Gail Austin and Mensah Wali, founders of the Kente Arts Alliance
Portland OR – Yugen Rashad, host at KBOO community radio
San Francisco Bay Area – Jesse “Chuy” Valera, Latin jazz maven, KSCM host
San Juan – Ramon Vázquez, bassist and community organizer
San Jose – Brendan Rawson, Executive Director San Jose Jazz, producer of Ukraine exchange project
Sarasota – Ed Linehan, Sarasota Jazz Club president
Seattle – Eugenie Jones, singer-songwriter, Music for a Cause
Stanford – Fredrick J. Berry, trumpeter-educator, College of San Mateo + Stanford Jazz Orchestra
Washington, D.C. – Charlie Young III, coordinator Instrumental Jazz Studies, Howard Univ.
Wilmington NC – Sandy Evans, North Carolina Jazz Festival, Jazz Lovers newsletter
