In the announcement of this year's awards, the JJA defines "Jazz Heroes" as "advocates, altruists, activists, aiders and abettors of jazz who have had significant impact in their local communities.” There are 22 individuals in this year's group of award winners, chosen from 20 cities across the USA.
Perkins (pictured) was born in North Carolina and grew up as a “military brat” at Air Force bases around the country. Moving to St. Louis in the 1970s, he worked as a manager for Streetside Records and eventually began to write freelance articles on music.
As a music journalist, he has written about jazz and other genres for local publications including the Riverfront Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis Beacon, St. Louis American, St. Louis magazine and Alive magazine, as well for as national and international outlets such as DownBeat, Jazz Times, RollingStone.com and the Oxford American.
Perkins also served for several years as creative director for the Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival, and as coordinator for Music For Lifelong Achievement, a not-for-profit group based at the Sheldon Concert Hall that collects donated musical instruments for disadvantaged young people in the St. Louis area.
In addition, Perkins worked with JJA to get St. Louis included in the Jazz Hero awards program, and presented the awards to the first four local winners, including the late Don Wolff in 2015, Dennis Owsley in 2016, the late Richard Henderson in 2017, and Jim Widner in 2018.
Terry Perkins will get his own “Jazz Hero” award in a ceremony on Wednesday, April 17 at Jazz St. Louis, held before the 7:00 p.m. "Whitaker Jazz Speaks" presentation by author Ricky Riccardi on the music of Louis Armstrong's Hot 5 and Hot 7. The event is free and open to the public.
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