The Jazz Journalists Association is pleased to announce its slate of 2023 Jazz Heroes, advocates who have had significant impact in their local communities. The ‘Jazz Hero’ awards, made annually on the basis of nominations from community members, are presented by their local fans and friends in conjunction with the JJA’s annual Jazz Awards honoring significant achievements in jazz music and journalism. Please spread the word of Jazz Heroes and the photo collage designed for easy sharing on your own social media posts.
MARK WEBER
2023 ALBUQUERQUE JAZZ HERO
New Mexico
Somebody had Mark Weber in mind when they coined the term “jazz hero.” Like all true heroes — especially the superheroes — he is always there when you need him. Mark has lived in true service to ever-morphing jazz and its practitioners, investing every vestige of self in the effort from his teen years in 1960s California to now in Albuquerque. He’s unclassifiable, but let me try: a historian, collector, scholar, practitioner, documenter in both words and images, and perhaps most importantly, a loyal and dedicated friend. — By Tom Guralnick
DR. GORDON VERNICK
2023 ATLANTA JAZZ HERO
Georgia
Dr. Gordon Vernick, a jazz trumpeter and educator, has had a huge impact on the Atlanta Jazz scene over the past few decades as a professor of music and coordinator of Jazz Studies at Georgia State University. He’s taken the initiative of starting multiple programs, presenting educational jazz performances, bringing renown touring jazz artists to town for concerts and master classes, curating jam sessions, taking live jazz programs into our public schools, and personally instructing middle-school kids in playing jazz. —By J. Scott Fugate and Evette Dorham
PEDRO MORENO
2023 AUSTIN JAZZ HERO
Texas
Austin prides itself on its progressive and offbeat mindset. It is also the capital of a state with a rich history of avant-garde luminaries, from Ornette Coleman to Julius Hemphill. One would expect to find a culture in Austin that supports creative music. But by the 1990s the city’s music scene, as far as exploration was concerned, had become increasingly limited (although the Creative Opportunity Orchestra founded by Tina Marsh was holding forth). In 1998, Pedro “P.G.” Moreno, then a student at the University of Texas, initiated a sea change when he founded the presenting organization Epistrophy Arts. — By Rob Shepherd, Photo by Ivan Moreno
ERIC KENNEDY
2023 BALTIMORE JAZZ HERO
Maryland
Eric Kennedy has performed, toured, and recorded with an impressive range of solid jazz leaders including Gary Bartz, Fred Wesley, Ethel Ennis, Larry Willis,Carl Grubbs and Pansori (Korean solo opera) master Ahn Sook Sun. He was the last drummer/vocalist for the bluesy Holmes Brothers, honored with a National Heritage Award. He’s been an integral member of projects by previous Baltimore Jazz Heroes including bass clarinetist-ensemble leader Todd Marcus (celebrated in 2016), trumpeter-educator Sean Jones (2020) and, bassist Ed Hrybyk (2022). But musical achievements, accolades and associations are not what earn Eric Kennedy his recognition as a hero – rather, it’s his work since 1996 as an educator, mentoring Baltimore’s young population, from children to undergraduates.
CAROLYN J. KELLEY
2023 BOSTON JAZZ HERO
Massachussets
As a teenager, Cambridge, Massachusetts native Carolyn “CJ” Kelley rebelled against the jazz her parents loved and became a diehard rock fan, until she realized that the music of Frank Zappa “wasn’t just rock.” A friend suggested that she join Boston’s Jazz Coalition, launching her career as one of the city’s most tireless and essential jazz heroes.
JUDITH INSELL
2023 THE BRONX JAZZ HERO
New York
Judith Insell, executive director of the Bronx Arts Ensemble since March 2021 (and formerly its artistic director), has transformed the cultural outreach organization founded in 1972 by employing local composers and bandleaders to create new works drawing from and often combining jazz, classical, Latin, Balkan, Bomba, Afro-Cuban, Afro-jazz, and klezmer styles. As a professional violist with exceptional broad experience – she is the only Jazz Hero ever to have performed and/or recorded with Beyonce, India.Arie and Suzanne Vega as well Lee Konitz, Steve Coleman and Joe Fonda, to tour the world in the Soldier String Quartet backing John Cale, to appear on Saturday Night Live, with play in several symphonies and numerous Broadway orchestras – Judith is well aware of music’s joyous scope and variety, reflected in the diversity of population in her native borough. It’s her vision to extend its pleasures to underserved communities as well as the general public.
— By Mary Ann McSweeney
ANDREW DRURY
2023 BROOKLYN JAZZ HERO
New York
Drummer Andrew Drury’s Brooklyn-based Soup & Sound parlor series is a scene that champions boundless sound, shared by adventurous musicians and audiences alike. In his living room or in community gardens and other such congenial spaces, far and wide, he has provided visibility and opportunity for a global community of improvising and experimental musicians. From roots in 1980s and ‘90s activities he initiated in Connecticut and Seattle, Andrew has worked for decades to activate the transformational power of jazz and other improvised music – indeed, internationally. He has brought over 1500 music workshops to public schools, prisons, museums, homeless and battered women shelters, enclaves of Kurdish refugees, North American tribal lands and remote Guatemalan and Nicaraguan villages as well as the five boroughs of New York City.— By Melanie Dyer
CARLOS FLORES
2023 CHICAGO JAZZ HERO
Illinois
A longtime advocate for Latino music in general, and Afro-Latin Jazz in particular, Carlos Flores has played an indispensable behind-the-scenes role in modern Chicago’s cultural development.— By Neil Tesser
GABRIEL POLLACK
2023 CLEVELAND JAZZ HERO
Ohio
Gabe Pollack might be the most irreplaceable person in the complex and evolving web of jazz players, presenters, cheerleaders and scenemakers in Cleveland and northeast Ohio. Named director of performing arts at the Cleveland Museum of Art in October 2022, during his eight-year tenure as the manager and director of Bop Stop at The Music Settlement – a venue that was voted Best Jazz Club in America by readers of All About Jazz in 2019 – Gabe presented hundreds of musicians in thousands of events. — By John Chacona
FREDDIE JONES
2023 DALLAS JAZZ HEROES
Texas
Freddie Jones, a trumpet player, composer and producer born in Memphis but – having earned his jazz degrees from University of North Texas Denton – long based in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, can’t remember the day he didn’t want to be a musician. — By Joanna St. Angelo
TENIA NELSON
2023 DENVER JAZZ HERO
Colorado
To a casual observer of the Rocky Mountain jazz scene, pianist-percussionist-educator-composer-arranger Tenia Nelson seems to be everywhere all at once. — By David Froman
RODNEY WHITAKER
2023 DETROIT JAZZ HERO
Michigan
A resounding “yes!” arose from members of the jazz community when bassist and educator Rodney Whitaker was nominated as the 2023 Detroit Jazz Hero. Though he studied at Wayne State University, Rodney says his deepest lessons came on the bandstand from mentors Donald Walden, Marcus Belgrave, Roy Brooks, Robert Gladstone, Donald Washington, Ralphe Armstrong, Herbie Williams, and Alma Smith along with Kenn Cox, whose motto was “Each one, teach one”. Whitaker has lived up to that directive, teaching multitudes, in incalculable manners. — By Linda Yohn
JOE MORRIS
2023 HARTFORD JAZZ HERO
Connecticut
With more than 150 recordings — often for renegade labels — to his credit, Joe Morris has been called “the preeminent free music guitarist of his generation.” As critic Gary Giddins once wrote in the Village Voice: “If Ornette Coleman were Jim Hall, he would be Joe Morris.” But it’s Morris’s commitment to spreading the word about improvised music over the past three decades,to students as an educator/mentor and to the public as event organizer and concert producer/curator that has earned him Jazz Hero recognition. — By Bill Milkowski
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HERMAN "BUTCH" SLAUGHTER & KYLE LONG
2023 INDIANAPOLIS JAZZ HERO
Indiana
WFYI-Indianapolis broadcasters Kyle Long and Herman “Butch” Slaughter were recently elated to learn their show “Echoes of Indiana Avenue” which documents and showcases Naptown jazz, won a prestigious regional Edward R. Murrow award. “Neither Herman or myself have any training in broadcasting, so we were shocked to receive this great honor,” said Kyle. —By Leslie Lyntonn Fuller
LEROY DOWNS & FREDERICK SMITH, JR.
2023 LOS ANGELES JAZZ HEROES
California
It is no exaggeration to say that LeRoy Downs and Frederick Smith, Jr., are responsible for restoring Los Angeles’ status as a world capital of jazz. As L.A. has hemorrhaged jazz venues over the past few years, this dynamic duo brought cutting edge programming to radio, television, the internet, festivals and alternative performance spaces under the rubric Just Jazz. — By Robin D. G. Kelley
JANIS LANE EWART
2023 MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL JAZZ HERO
Minnesota
Widely recognized as a passionate jazz advocate with a history of working in media production, Janis Lane Ewart began her career in Chicago in 1977, and relocated to Minneapolis in 1989 keeping her connections. Throughout her career she has been dedicated to community service, cultural activism and community radio as a stalwart champion for jazz. — By Suzan Jenkins
NAOMI MOON SIEGEL
2023 MISSOULA JAZZ HERO
Montana
When Naomi Moon Siegel, trombonist and composer, relocated to Missoula in 2016 it was a fortunate occurrence for Montana musicians. — By MJ Williams
GWEN KELLEY
2023 MORRISTOWN JAZZ HERO
New Jersey
Whatever’s happening on New York’s jazz scene, trust Gwen Kelley to know about it. There’s no venue too small, no fund-raiser too obscure, no player too fresh in town, no style too niche to have escaped her notice. — By Barbara Salter
LUTHER S. GRAY
2023 NEW ORLEANS JAZZ HERO
Louisiana
Luther S Gray is a preservationist firmly rooted in the present. Born in Chicago in 1952, raised on bebop and the music of Theolonius Monk and Art Blakey, he gravitated at an early age to African drumming, and when he moved to New Orleans in 1984 immersed himself in in the rhythms of the second line, the long reach of African memory pulsing in the street dancers at funerals and parades of social aid and pleasure clubs. — By Jason Berry
BRICE ROSENBLOOM
2023 NEW YORK CITY JAZZ HEROES
New York
Music curator, concert promoter and president of concert promotion/production company BOOM Collective, Brice Rosenbloom continues both to supply stages for musicians to perform and provide a symbolic beacon of hope for musicians and the jazz community at large, particularly for those in and around New York City. — By Laurence Donohue-Greene
HOMER JACKSON
2023 PHILADELPHIA JAZZ HERO
Pennsylvania
Homer Jackson is director of the Philadelphia Jazz Project, and an an interdisciplinary artist with a background in curation, teaching and social service whose presents his work as installation, performance art, public art, video and audio, using mages, text, live action, audience participation and found objects to tell stories. The confluence of these activities is natural to him, derived from and feeding into his broad perspective. — By Mark Christman
GAIL AUSTIN & MENSAH WALI
2023 PITTSBURGH JAZZ HERO
Pennsylvania
Gail Austin and Mensah Wali, a married couple, were retirees when they incorporated the Kente Arts Alliance as a 501(c)3 organization in 2007, to present high-quality jazz and other music of the African diaspora in Black neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, which they regretted didn’t have entertainment options comparable to the city’s Downtown Cultural District. They’ve changed that, slowly, steadily, definitively. —By Dr. Nelson Harrison, Photo by Ryan Loew/90.5 WESA
YUGEN RASHAD
2023 PORTLAND JAZZ HERO
Oregon
Broadcaster, journalist and musician Yugen Rashad has been an invaluable voice for Portland’s relatively small African- American community for more than 30 years, advocating for and supporting jazz artists and the art form in general.—By Lynn Darroch, Marcia Hocker and Rick Mitchell
JESSE "CHUY" VARELA
2023 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA JAZZ HERO
California
The greater San Francisco Bay Area loves Jesse ‘Chuy’ Varela. Be it jazz fans, musicians, listeners to his programs following him for more than 40 years broadcasting from stations ending up at KCSM-FM, or fellow radio show hosts like me, we all appreciate what Chuy brings to the table every day. — By Brad Stone
BRENDAN RAWSON
2023 SAN JOSE HERO
California
As the executive director of San Jose Jazz (SJZ) since 2012, Brendan Rawson has played a central role in transforming a popular summer festival and year-round educational program into a nimble, artist-oriented organization quick to respond to dire situations, foreign and domestic. Though boom, bust and pandemic, SJZ has flourished in an environment where other performing arts organizations have foundered, partly due to the deep Silicon Valley roots that Rawson brought to the organization. — By Andrew Gilbert
RAMON VÁZQUEZ
2023 SAN JUAN JAZZ HERO
Puerto Rico
Bassist, educator, composer, recording artist and producer Ramon Vázquez Martirena was born in 1970 in the Cuban province of Matanzas, relocating to Puerto Rico with his family as a child. He became absorbed in music during middle school, taking up the bass as a challenge, pursuing mastery to attain high honors, scholarships, degrees and a broadly based, rewarding performance career with Latin American popular music artists, national symphonies and jazz stars. — By Joe Petrucelli
ED LINEHAN
2023 SARASOTA JAZZ HERO
Florida
Ed Linehan is in his fifth and final year as President and Managing Director of the Jazz Club of Sarasota. His tenure at the helm of the nonprofit’s Board of Directors has been marked with the addition of new concert series, rejuvenation of its sagging membership and dealing with the impacts of COVID-19 on two concert seasons, including restoration of the Sarasota Jazz Festival.—By Ken Franckling, photo © Carol LoRicco
EUGENIE JONES
2023 SEATTLE JAZZ HERO
Washington
A warm and engaging singer and songwriter with an MBA in marketing and affinity for community service, Eugenie Jones founded the nonprofit Music for a Cause in 2018. She’s described it “as the intersection between advancing the legacy of Seattle’s African-American Jazz community and aiding nonprofit organizations who work to meet community needs.” Towards those ends, Jones has worked to gather support around various live music projects, producing events that entertain, preserve history, educate youth, and employ local artists while providing financial benefit to the nonprofits with which she collaborates.— By Robin Lloyd
FREDRICK J. BERRY
2023 STANFORD JAZZ HERO
California
When the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians was being born in Chicago in 1965 trumpeter Frederick J. Berry was in the room, helping the organization take shape. In fact, many of the first meetings took place in his basement. An original member of the Roscoe Mitchell Quartet (which evolved into the Art Ensemble of Chicago), he was in the thick of the action during a brief but intensely fertile period. — By Andrew Gilbert
FRED HAAS & SABRINA BROWN
2023 UPPER VALLEY JAZZ HERO
Vermont/New Hampshire
Jazz is about sharing – using your musical voice to express life in the moment and giving to others. Fred Haas and Sabrina Brown spend their lives doing just that, through performance, teaching and building musical communities throughout the Upper Valley (NH and VT) and beyond for almost three decades, perhaps epitomized by their Interplay Jazz & Arts camp. — By Thea Calitri-Martin and Justin Varnes
CHARLIE YOUNG III
2023 WASHINGTON DC JAZZ HERO
Charlie Young brings deep knowledge, virtuoso chops and keen purpose to everything he does as a college professor, popular clinician, sparking soloist and touring conductor. Doing so at Howard University, the historically Black research university in Washington, D.C., where he serves as Professor of Saxophone and Coordinator of Instrumental Jazz Studies. he goes well beyond normal duties of a university faculty member. — By John Edward Hasse
SANDY EVANS
2023 WILMINGTON JAZZ HERO
North Carolina
After 20 years on the board of the North Carolina Jazz Festival (NCJF) board, 17 as president, Sandy Evans is stepping down. Never fear – that does not mean that Wilmington, NC’s Jazz Hero is retiring from jazz.— By Angelo Galeotti
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