As jazz — the music, business and culture of it — depends on an intricate and widespread network of activists, altruists and advocates to thrive, today the Jazz Journalists Association (JJA) celebrates 35 grassroots culture workers of 33 locales — including, for the first time, London — as 2026 Jazz Heroes.
The Jazz Heroes announcement launches the JJA’s 31st annual Jazz Awards season during Jazz Appreciation Month, climaxing on International Jazz Day (April 30) — being hosted in Chicago this year — with local follow-up presentations nationwide.
See Jazz Heroes portraits and bios at JJAJazzAwards.org/2026-jazz-heroes. Among them are:
- Brenda Hopkins Miranda (San Juan, PR), pianist, scholar, educator, vlogger, island-wide cultural mover and shaker
- Bill Martinez (San Francisco, CA), an immigration attorney who has facilitated dozens of performances by Cuban artists in the U.S.
- Fiona Ross (London, UK), pianist, vocalist, songwriter and founder of Women in Jazz Media
- Lauren Parks (East St. Louis, IL), leader of campaign to turn Miles Davis’s childhood home into the House of Miles community center
- Henry “The Skipper” Franklin (Los Angeles), legacy artist, bassist, mentor and music community anchor
The complete list of JJAJazzAwards.org/2026-jazz-heroes comprises community-committed and issue-oriented music-makers of Akron, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Billings, Chicago, Houston, Indianapolis, Sacramento and Washington, D.C.; educators at academy, conservatory, studio and universities in Ann Arbor, Northampton, Portland and the Twin Cities; radio voices of Columbus, Detroit, Rochester, South Bend and West Hartford; Toledo’s jam-session organizer and Sacramento’s Thai restaurant venue-operator; the founder of New York City’s child-centric Jazz Power Initiative and the recently retired director of jazz programming at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Jazz Heroes are nominated by supporters in their local communities, and receive JJA certificates in events attended by those fans. For instance: Houston tenor saxophonist Tierney Malone will accept his Jazz Award at a “Coltrane 100” concert at DACAMERA on April 10; longtime WGMC jazz anchor Derrick Lucas gets his certificate at a free Rick Holland Big Band “Jazz at The Beach” performance at Tropix Nightclub on April 14, and singer-historian Maggie Brown is to be feted at a JJA media meetup at Chicago’s Palmer House on April 29. Others TBA.
An international membership organization of traditional and new media professionals covering jazz, the JJA has since 2001 identified and hailed individuals who go beyond their professional responsibilities to sustain and expand on musical activities with local and regional impact. A complete list of Jazz Heroes (formerly members of “the A Team”) from 2001 to 2025 is here.
The JJA is a 501 (c) 3 professional organization first convened in 1987, currently with more than 260 members worldwide. The 2026 Jazz Heroes campaign is concurrent with the 31st Annual JJA Jazz Awards, winners to be announced May 5. The JJA also produces The Buzz podcast and Seeing Jazz photography salons, archived on YouTube. In 2024, Cymbal Press published The Jazz Omnibus: 21st Century Photos and Writings by Members of the Jazz Journalists Association, a 600-page anthology.
For more information see JJAJazzAwards,JJANews, @JazzJournalists on Facebook, JJAnews on X, JazzJournalists on Instagram, or write to Rebecca Klobucher, admin@jazzjournalists.org or Jim Eigo, Jim@JazzPromoServices.com.
