12/11/2025
‘Tomorrow’s Warriors was set up to address the under-representation of Black talent — and later on, women and girls — in jazz in this country,’ says co-founder Janine Irons.
Back then, as she puts it, the scene was “very, very male, pale and stale.” Gigs full of older men scratching their chins, wondering why the music was fading away. Jazz had become exclusive — middle-aged, middle-class, and overwhelmingly white. Something had to change.
Tomorrow’s Warriors was that change.
Founded in 1991 by Janine and her husband, musician Gary Crosby, the non-profit has helped shape every generation of British jazz since. Its alumni include Nubya Garcia, Shabaka Hutchings, Moses Boyd and EZRA Collective - names that have carried the sound of a new era to global stages. But what they’ve built is bigger than music.
“We tame the beast,” says Gary. “Nothing else can win. We are warriors.”
At its core, Tomorrow’s Warriors is about community — a place for young people to learn, improvise and pass it on. As Janine explains, the “each one teach one” ethos took root when they moved into the Southbank Centre. “You could literally chart it like the branches of a tree — one group growing into many.”
More than 15,000 young musicians have come through its free workshops, residencies and summer schools — many discovering jazz for the first time. For some, it’s been a way into the industry; for others, a way into art, purpose, and belonging. “Everyone should have access to art,” Janine says. “It should be a right.”
🗞 Read the full feature in Off Licence Magazine – Issue Sixteen: “JAZZ”
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