Janine Mireille IronsOBEFRSA is a British music educator, artist manager and producer, who in 1991 co-founded with her partner Gary Crosby the music education and professional development organisation Tomorrow's Warriors, of which she is Chief Executive.[1][2] In 1997, she and Crosby also initiated the Dune Records label, with a focus on Black British jazz musicians and musicians from Tomorrow's Warriors.[3][4][5] Irons has also worked as a photographer and musician.[4]
Born in Harrow, London, Irons studied classical piano "with a teacher who was rumoured to have worked with [André] Previn".[4] As a young teenager, she sang in a funk band and at 16 was offered a contract as a vocalist; instead, however, she decided to pursue a career in The City.[4] Finding this work "well-paid but boring", she enrolled on a photography course at the City and Guilds of London Institute. It was while covering a jazz performance as a freelance photographer that she met her future partner, bass player Gary Crosby, and after helping with his band she went on to manage artists, as well as becoming involved with recording and releasing records.[4]
Tomorrow's Warriors
Irons and Crosby founded in 1991 the jazz music education and artist development organisation Tomorrow's Warriors, of which Irons is managing director/CEO, and in 1997 began Dune Records, which soon developed into an award-winning label, with Irons as managing director.[4] She has recalled initially having to do "everything apart from play the music! I did the photography, the liner notes, the artwork, the press/PR, the distribution… everything! However, with our third release, Denys Baptiste's Be Where You Are (1999), we decided to engage professional designers to ease the pressures on me. Again, this album received great critical acclaim and, to our utter amazement, was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, the most prestigious music prize in the UK which looks for the best releases of British music regardless of genre."[8][9] In addition to Baptiste, other notable acts associated with Dune include Nu Troop, J-Life, Jazz Jamaica, Soweto Kinch and Abram Wilson.[8][10]
In 2019, she was recognised in the Alternative Power 100 Music List, which was established as a response to Billboard magazine's Power 100 List with the aim to challenge conventional music industry standards by SheSaid.So, a global network of women in the music industry.[14][15]
Irons was an honoree on the Roll of Honour for the 2020 Music Week Women In Music Awards, held in association with AIM and UK Music.[16][17]
At the 2023 Parliamentary Jazz Awards, Irons received the Services to Jazz Award (with the award for "Jazz Newcomer of the Year" going to Tomorrow's Warriors alumnus Sultan Stevenson).[20][21]
