The Ottawa Jazz Festival board has given Jim Fogo its 2010 Community Recognition Award, for his "long-time contribution to the scene locally, nationally, and internationally."

"Jim's contribution to the local scene is enormous – he is one of jazz music's great ambassadors and he is one of our dearest friends."

Fogo helped organize the International Duke Ellington Conference when it came to Ottawa in May, 1990: its first appearance in Canada. The conference attracted hundreds of delegates from North America and abroad, including scholars and Ellington enthusiasts.

He is also a former Festival board member (1996 to 2000). He encouraged the Festival to schedule well-known artists as Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

Festival executive producer Catherine O'Grady said Fogo recruited her to run the festival back in the mid-1990s when the festival was in severe financial straits, and he was extremely important to the organization behind the scenes.

She said she enjoyed working with him: "he was a gentle, smart, sweet man, patient and kind."

Fogo attended Lisgar Collegiate in Ottawa, and received an engineering degree from Queen's University and a law degree from Dalhousie University. Since returning to Ottawa more than 45 years ago, the festival said, "he has been a tireless promoter of all things jazz. ... To this day, Jim loves anything with the big band sound! His knowledge is encyclopedic and his enthusiasm is dauntless."

– Alayne McGregor