Board of Directors

Jarrett Lilien

Chairman

Dr. Daveed D. Frazier

President

Richard D. Parsons

Chairman Emeritus

Michael Devins

Treasurer

Steve Jordan

Artistic Directors

Steve Jordan

Steve Jordan has helped expand the vocabulary of modern music, not only as a drummer, but also as a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. In 2021, Jordan replaced Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts on the Stones’ 13-date U.S. tour. Following Watts’ death, he continues to play with the Stones both live and in the studio.
He has recorded with the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Steve Wonder, B.B. King, Sonny Rollins, Sheryl Crow, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Aretha Franklin, Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson, the Pretenders, Stevie Nicks, Norah Jones, James Taylor, Diana Krall, Sting, Billy Joel, Don Henley, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and the original Saturday Night Live Band, and he was a founding member of the World’s Most Dangerous Band for Late Night With David Letterman.

As a Grammy-winning producer and Emmy-winning musical director, Jordan has made albums for Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos, John Mayer (which includes winning Pop Vocal Album of the Year for Continuum), John Mayer Trio, Robert Cray, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Los Lonely Boys, John Scofield, Buddy Guy, Booker T., Solomon Burke, Boz Scaggs, Hubert Sumlin, Tom Jones, Patty Scialfa, and Beyoncé. His most satisfying work is the collaboration with Meegan Voss and their band, the Verbs.

He received an Emmy for his musical direction in Movies Rock in addition to working on Fashion Rocks, several Kennedy Center Honors and the 2004 Democratic Convention. He has worked as musical director/producer on films Lightning in a Bottle and Cadillac Records, and consulted on Standing in the Shadows of Motown. Jordan is currently producing Solid Soul, a documentary on the musical legacy of record producer Willie Mitchell. Steve and Meegan Voss are the founders of the independent recording company Jay-Vee Records, home to the Grammy-nominated album by Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm and their band, the Verbs. They are also the Co-Artistic Directors of the Jazz Foundation of America.

In recent years, Steve has produced Keith Richards’ album Crosseyed Heart and John Mayer’s The Search for Everything, and is working on the Verbs’ new LP Garage Sale and new albums by Sheryl Crow, Josh Groban and Bettye LaVette.

Additional production credits include Rod Stewart’s Soulbook, John Mayer’s Battle Studies, the Verbs’ Trip and Cover Story, Boz Scaggs’ Memphis and A Fool to Care, Robert Cray’s Hi Rhythm as well as Cray’s In My Soul and his live project 4 Nights of 40 Years Live. Jordan was musical director for the 61st, 62nd, 64th, 66th, 67th, and 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as musical director for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research Annual Gala, in addition to touring with Eric Clapton.

Wendy Oxenhorn

Vice Chair

Wendy Oxenhorn

In 2000 Oxenhorn took over the executive directorship of the Jazz Foundation of America (JFA), which provides assistance to elderly professional jazz, blues and R & B musicians in need.[10] At the time, the organization had $7,000 in its accounts and handled 35 clients per year. In 2001 Oxenhorn conceived and produced what became the major annual JFA fundraising event: “A Great Night in Harlem.” Named after the famed Art Kane photograph, A Great Day in Harlem, Oxenhorn’s Great Night in Harlem Concert at the Apollo Theater has been a hugely successful annual fundraising event, which would not have been possible without Lauren Roberts, a co-worker and Jarrett Lilien, the former E*TRADE president, who offered to bankroll the cost of the Apollo Theater and has since become the organization’s President.[11] The inaugural event was emceed by Gil Noble, and featured performances by dozens of prominent jazz musicians. The concert also helped attract prominent board members, including Quincy Jones, their current chairman; Richard Parsons, Agnes Varis, Elvis Costello, Danny Glover, Michael Novogratz and Lou Reed. The benefit concert raised $350,000 in its first year, 13 days after 9/11.[12] Oxenhorn’s fundraising efforts vastly expanded the program to over 500 cases per year and by 2005 the JFA became a national organization with a staff of four.

Oxenhorn’s work at the JFA has included post-Katrina relief efforts for displaced musicians, re-housing and creating instant employment to hundreds of New Orleans musicians and their children, thanks to the support and generosity of Jarrett Lilien and E*TRADE and the famous Met Opera philanthropist Agnes Varis, who has since been known and loved the world over as “Saint” Agnes.[9] Agnes Varis’ support allowed Oxenhorn to create the Agnes Varis Jazz in the Schools Program. This program makes it possible for hundreds of elderly musicians to introduce jazz, blues and live music for the first time, to over 80,000 public school children a year. The Agnes Varis Program has kept hundreds of musicians afloat for the past ten years since Katrina, allowing them to pay their own rent. The Foundation’s efforts are credited with bringing over 1000 displaced musicians back to New Orleans after Katrina by re-housing families and creating immediate employment. Oxenhorn also acquired over a quarter million dollars worth of donated new top shelf instruments to replace what was lost in the flood for hundreds of NOLA’s most beloved musicians. As human rights journalist, historian and jazz critic Nat Hentoff explained, “Wendy Oxenhorn launched Jazz in the Schools to also preserve the legacy of jazz by enlisting elder masters of jazz and blues who are in need of work to play educational performances introducing these public school children to jazz. Since then, the performances have included venues like children’s hospitals and nursing homes.”[13] Hentoff also writes: “Wendy Oxenhorn, the foundation’s executive director—is the most determined, resilient, and selfless person I have ever known—she has emphasized to me “It’s a privilege to be of service to people who spent a lifetime making our world so beautiful with their music and giving us all they had.”[14] Time Warner Inc. Chairman Richard D. Parsons said in an interview that Oxenhorn’s ability to help artists quickly was a big factor in his decision to donate both his own money and corporate funds. “On the basis of an article I read in the NY Times, I just sent the foundation a check, Parsons said, adding that he subsequently met Oxenhorn. “She is `sui generis,’ as we say in the law. She is one of a kind. When she sets her heart on something, she is fearless in pursuing it.[9]

Actor Michael Imperioli, who got involved with the Jazz Foundation after being moved by the spirit of the foundation’s work, believes that her role in the industry is thoroughly unique. “I’m surprised that she hasn’t been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and lauded in some public way – not to single out any one person, but she deserves to be on that sort of platform,” Imperioli told ABC News. “People should really know this person,” Imperioli said. “She should get a Congressional Medal of Honor as far as I’m concerned. She gets an immense amount of joy from helping people. I’m a Buddhist, [and] in my religion, we call that a bodhisattva—someone who actually dedicates their lives to serving and helping others and that’s who she is.”[15]

Since 2001 Oxenhorn has generated over 70 million dollars and the organization now assists 7000 emergency assists a year and continues to save the homes and lives of thousands of musicians in crisis.