As jazz — the music, business and culture of it — depends on an intricate and widespread network of activists, altruists and advocates to thrive, and celebrating local doers at least used to be a way to focus attention on the out-of-the-spotlight work necessary to make anything worthwhile happen, the Jazz Journalists Association (JJA) is for the 25th year naming and profiling Jazz Heroes.
I’ve formally retired from presiding over the JJA, but am deeply involved in promoting this campaign, hoping to remind people all over — general audiences! — that jazz is near them/us, presented by our neighbors, taught and sung and lived by devotees virtually everywhere. The JJA’s 34 2026 Jazz Heroes. are grassroots culture workers from 32 locales (including, for the first time, London). Their portraits and personality profiles are at JJAJazzAwards.org/2026-jazz-heroes. Among them:
- Henry “The Skipper” Franklin (Los Angeles), legacy artist, bassist, mentor and music community anchor
- 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
- Kevin Struthers, under whose direction jazz programming of the now-shuttered Kennedy Center was a national asset
The complete class includes 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 university levels in Ann Arbor, Northampton, San Juan and the Twin Cities; radio voices of Columbus, Detroit, Houston, 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 kid-centric Jazz Power Initiative and the publisher of AllAboutJazz.com, a free portal in its 30th year.
Jazz Heroes are nominated by supporters in their local communities, and receive JJA certificates in events attended by those fans. Houston deejay Tierney Malone, for instance, 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 April 14 Rick Holland Big Band “Jazz at The Beach” performance at Tropix Nightclub; and South Side griot Maggie Brown is to be feted at a JJA Party at Chicago’s Palmer House on April 29. Others TBA.
Jazz musicians, by definition, are jazz soldiers — but not all are Jazz Heroes, who go beyond their basic survival responsibilities to sustain and expand on musical activities above and beyond. A Honor Roll of all the Jazz Heroes from 2001 (then called members of “the A Team”) 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 master classes. In 2024, Cymbal Press published The Jazz Omnibus: 21st Century Photos and Writings by Members of the Jazz Journalists Association. The JJA maintains frequently updated JJANews and JJAJazzAwards; @JazzJournalists on Facebook, JJAnews on X, JazzJournalists on Instagram, and can be reached with emails to admin@jazzjournalists.org.
One more thing: It’s not necessary to be a Jazz Hero to enjoy (or even just sample) jazz. There’s a lot of it out there, all varieties, maybe you hear and it and don’t even notice. But beware, exposure breeds appreciation, enjoyment, embrace, enthrallment, devotion. It’s a slippery slope, starting with syncopation, swing and blue notes, leading who knows where? Not knowing’s a part of the fun.