Saturday, June 9, 2012

A sizzling victory of sorts for Latin jazz

Yes, boys and girls, there is value in being the skunk at the lawn party. We saw proof of it yesterday.

The Recording Academy has made a partial but significant rollback this week from its 2011 decision to cut 31 Grammy Awards categories. It’s decision, made by the Board of Trustees last month and announced yesterday, added two awards and reinstated the Best Latin Jazz Album category.




The Academy’s April 2011 action spurred letters of protest, protest rallies and complaints by high-profile artists including Bill Cosby, Herbie Hancock and Paul Simon. The Latin jazz community was the most visible and vocal in its complaining, spurred on by New York drummer and educator Bobby Sanabria,

It even filed a class-action lawsuit regarding  the changes. While that suit was dismissed recently, this Trustees’ decision gives many Latin jazz musicians much to smile about – and as Sanabria has said, an opportunity to focus their time and energy strictly on music again, not on the Grammy issue.

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful news! I love Latin jazz and it's nice the category has been added back to the Grammy Awards. The artists should be recognized for their hard work.

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