The Jazz Journalists Association recently named Mike Samball, professor emeritus in the Department of Music, a 2022 Jazz Hero. Howard
Mandel, association president, writes that Samball received this honor, “for the work he’s done to advance jazz in Boise — which of course has ripple effects to the good of all.”
Samball is the director of the Boise State Invitational Jazz Festival, the Gene Harris Jazz Festival and as executive director for Boise Jazz Society in the Department of Music.
The Jazz Hero program started in 2001 to acknowledge activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz, what the organization calls the “A Team.”
In 2022 the Jazz Journalists Association awarded 29 people across 27 U.S. cities.