Chamber Music America, the non-profit organization supporting music of and by small ensembles across genre, has announced that Howard Mandel, JJA President Emeritus, is recipient of its 2026 Award for Arts Advocacy.
Mandel and other honorees will receive their honors at a luncheon at the Drake hotel on Aug. 21 during the CMA National Conference, and he will participate in panels comprising a by-invitation Jazz Summit at the offices of the Jazz Institute of Chicago, on August 20, culminating in a performance by Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble at Constellation, drummer-composer-JJA Jazz Hero Mike Reed’s performance space.
CMA Awards are also extended to Community Impact / Presenter of the Year, Album of the Year, Interdisciplinary Collaboration of the Year, Commission / New Work of the Year, Ensemble / Project of the Year, Cleveland Quartet Award, Michael Jaffee Visionary Award, and Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award
“Journalist and Jazz Journalists Association co-founder Howard Mandel has demonstrated an unwavering dedication to the jazz arts through more than 30 years of visionary leadership,” reads the CMA’s citation. “Under his leadership, the organization established a cross-disciplinary, international consortium of jazz journalists and established the JJA Awards, an annual honor for musicians, writers, and notable members of the jazz community. Since retiring from the organization in 2025, Mandel has continued work as a writer, including an expansive memoir project with saxophonist Oliver Lake.”
“I’m proud to be so honored,” said Mandel, who since stepping back from his official position remains on the JJA board, and edits JJANews, among other activities. “But I plan to accept this Award on behalf of the entire JJA membership, and our unaffiliated colleagues, too. All of us writing about, broadcasting and photographing jazz are arts advocates — besides being practicing artists in our own rights. Yes, good music journalism is an art, and a necessity in conjunction with music itself.”
Mandel, who became JJA president in 1994, is the author of Future Jazz and Miles Ornette Cecil – Jazz Beyond Jazz, editor of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz and Blues and two subsequent editions, among several other books including The Jazz Omnibus, past editor of magazines including DownBeat, RhythmMusic, Ear and JVC Jazz Festival program guides. Having started as a clerk at Chicago’s Jazz Record Mart and copy clerk for the Chicago Daily News, he moved to Washington, D.C. and New York City in 1982, and advanced to writing, editing, audio producing, teaching and leading. the Jazz Journalists Association.
Mandel’s been an arts reporter for National Public Radio and producer of independently distributed radio series; he taught courses on music and writing about the arts at New York University from 1987 – 2014, and at the New School. He’s contributed to the New York Times, Washington Post, Village Voice, The Wire (UK), Billboard, Chicago Daily News, Swing Journal and Jazz Life (Japan), Bravo! (Brazil), Rytmi (Finland) and Counterpoint (Kyiv) ,among other publications, has written dozens of liner notes, and lectured widely, including in Kyiv and Armenia in 2002 and University of Jordan Amman in 2012 under US Department of State auspices. He has been a juror of several grands and awards panels, and is a board member of the Jazz Institute of Chicago.
