2012 - The Year in Jazz

The world of jazz officially went global in 2012, kicked the Grammy Awards in the shins, dealt with economic issues and Mother Nature, and found new ways to innovate in this social media and Internet-savvy age. That is the overview of my annual wrapup of significant goings on in the jazz world, and its continuing move of players to the celestial jazz band, which has been published by allaboutjazz.com.

The many losses in the jazz world ranged from pianist, composer and bandleader Dave Brubeck and composer Clare Fischer to drummer Pete “LaRoca” Sims, saxophonists Red Holloway, John Tchicai and David S. Ware, and singer Etta James. The list is frighteningly long again for 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.

Grammy redux

Another random thought on the Grammys last night. Maybe the voters have begun a course correction for the major categories.

Adele goes six for six. Which, in my mind, is a very strong endorsement for purity of voice and genuine soul. She soundly whack-a-moled the alternatives that have reared their ugly heads for too long: fashions selected for shock value, artists who win more for their dance moves than their voices, and glitz glitz glitz.

That was reinforced when some of the night's flashy entertainers (can you spell Bruno and Katy) walked away empty-handed. I won't even get into the Little Red Riding Hood gets an exorocism nonsense.

Way to go, Adele. You deserve it - and then some.

I must also commend Neil Portnow for his turnabout from 2011. He delivered his remarks about NARAS without talking over anyone's music. Let's hope that, too, starts a new trend.

Congratulations to the jazz-related musicians who won Grammys this year: Pat Metheny, Cachao, Chick Corea, Stanley Clark and Lenny White; Gordon Goodwin, Terri Lynne Carrington, Jorge Calandrelli, Bela Fleck and Howard Levy, Christian McBride, Tony Bennett and the Rebirth Brass Band. And to all of the nominees in those categories.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

The portion of the Grammys featuring jazz categories and jazz musicians took place hours before tonight’s prime time telecast of the least-common-denominator categories… and it was quite a showing today for Concord Records and its subsidiaries… garnering four of the eight awards.

See the winners here in category numbers 29-33, 42, 57 and 58.

Another shout out goes to the always-funny actress/comedienne Betty White for her Best Spoken Word Album Grammy for If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) [Penguin Audio]. It’s not jazz, but Betty’s a hoot.

Unlikely to be a super Sunday

Football's Super Bowl will be here in 13 days, which means we're less than three weeks away from the Grammys. Don't groan all at once, boys and girls.

The 54th annual GRAMMY Awards are set for Sunday, Feb. 12 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. It's rare that jazz gets the spotlight it deserves at this musical circus event so I never dig too deep with predictions.

My only wonder at this point, is which jazz artist's/group's performance Grammy guru Neil Portnow will talk over this year. Or maybe he learned from last year's insult to Best New Artist winner Esparanza Spalding. One can only hope someone will restrain him.

God forbid he should prattle on about "the academy" while Rihanna or Sir Paul McCartney are performing.

Jazz Masters 2012 - the 30th and final class (updated)

Call it overdue honors for Vonski and more

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced the recipients of the 2012 NEA Jazz Masters Award — the nation’s highest honor in jazz. The five recipients are drummer-keyboardist Jack DeJohnette, saxophonist Von Freeman, bassist and composer Charlie Haden, singer Sheila Jordan and trumpeter Jimmy Owens (pictured). As a longtime educator, the latter will receive the 2012 A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy.

Each will receive a one-time award of $25,000 and be honored at the annual awards ceremony and concert, produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center at its home, Frederick P. Rose Hall in Manhattan next January.

With this class, the NEA is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the NEA Jazz Masters Awards, which recognize outstanding musicians for their lifetime achievements and significant contributions to the development and performance of jazz. Ironically, the NEA Jazz Masters program is going away... making this its final class of recipients. The agency has proposed one program to honor artists in all disciplines. It's called the NEA American Artists of the Year awards.

This condensation means jazz artists will still have an opportunity to receive lifetime achievement recognition from the NEA, although their nominations will have to compete with other varieties of artists. We'll have to wait and see how that works out, just as the jury is still out over the Grammys consolidation hornet's nest this spring.

Yet another Grammy dustup

Could the Grammys exist without healthy doses of skepticism and controversy? I think not.

Skepticism, mostly during the awards season, for all of the hype and pop/hip-hop glitz that seems to minimize the celebration of real music. However, as mentioned a while back, quality turned the tables on pop phenomenon when singer and bassist Esparanza Spalding was this year's upset winner in the Best New Artist category, much to the dismay and even outrage of Justin Bieber fans.

Controversy erupts, as it did a couple of weeks ago, when the powers-that-be decided to trim back a number of awards categories from 109 to 78, a reduction of roughly 30 percent, for next year's voting.

The changes were announced by National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences President Neil Portnow (the dude who prattled on over Spalding's Grammy performance). The changes come amid longstanding criticism in the music industry that too many categories were diluting the Grammys’ impact. (The Grammys had only 28 categories when they began in 1959.)

There has been a firestorm of reaction from record companies, producers and musicians, particularly among impacted categories.Nobody has had their knickers in a twist (to borrow a U.K. term) more than the Latin music community, particularly Latin jazz. The award for Latin jazz has been eliminated under this revision. Bandleader Eddie Palmieri called it "an insult to our genre and many others.”

Some would argue that among the aggrieved parties, the Latin categories may have the least to crow about. Latin music is the only genre that has a separate but related showcase with the Latin Grammy Awaards, that have been held annually since 2000. Those awards do include Latin jazz categories.

At a NARAS regional chapter meeting in New York, Palmieri told academy executives that there needs to be a greater Hispanic presence at the main event, implying that the separate Latin Grammy Awards, held in the fall, are far less significant. “There’s no two Oscars, no two Emmys, no two Tonys,” he said. Later, in a written statement, Palmieri said NARAS is "marginalizing our music, culture and people even further. Let me be clear: we have been discredited, we have been discarded and we are being wiped out."

NARAS has also cut categories for best contemporary jazz album, best traditional blues album, best metal performance and best rock instrumental performance, as well as four classical music categories.

Still, there are no separate Jazz Grammy, Classical Grammy, Blues Grammy Awards programs. So Latin Jazz seems to have a leg up in some respects over some other impacted genres.

Drummer Roy Haynes summed it all up by saying this latest tweak means the remaining jazz categories are going to be a lot more crowded, and that it’s going to be harder than ever to win a Grammy.

Only time will tell whether the howls of protest will lead to a reconsideration - or further tweaks to a system that seems geared more and more toward commercial appeal and TV glitz.

Newport rolls on thankfully

George Wein is a huge fan of Esparanza Spalding. The singer-bassist (pictured) has been a Newport regular for the past few years - and with her unexpected Grammy win - will be a featured artist at the 2011 edition of the Newport Jazz Festival. This year’s event runs August 5 to 7.

Wein’s production company didn’t waste time in getting out the lineup this year. Tickets go on sale this Saturday through TicketMaster and www.newportjazzfest.net.

Relatively young artists and veterans make up the bill, as Wein & Co. work in various ways to build an extended audience base that also spans generations and jazz genres - and reaches out to young fans and potential fans.

Besides Spalding, the younger players in the lineup include Ambrose Akinmusire, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Miguel Zenón, Avishai and Anat Cohen, Hiromi, Trombone Shorty and John Hollenbeck. The veterans include Wynton Marsalis, Michael Feinstein, Al Di Meola, Charles Lloyd, Eddie Palmieri, Randy Weston and Michel Camilo among others.

Wein told the Providence Journal’s Rick Massimo that Spalding will perform both Saturday and Sunday at Fort Adams State Park. Each day, she will draw from the talent on the bill to put together a different band.

It’s a way to put a bit of improvisational programming/jamming into a performance format that doesn’t see much jamming anymore.

Here's the lineup:

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 2011 / 8 p.m.

International Tennis Hall of Fame

Michael Feinstein w Special Guest Joe Negri

Wynton Marsalis

SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2011 / 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Fort Adams State Park

Wynton Marsalis

Esperanza Spalding & Friends I

Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Band

Al Di Meola World Sinfonia

Michel Camilo "Mano a Mano" with Giovanni Hidalgo and Charles Flores

Hiromi

Mujeres De Agua by Javier Limón featuring Buika

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

Regina Carter's Reverse Thread

Steve Coleman and Five Elements

Joey DeFrancesco Trio

Grace Kelly with Special Guest Phil Woods

Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet

Mostly Other People Do the Killing

New Black Eagle Jazz Band

SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, 2011 / 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Fort Adams State Park

Esperanza Spalding & Friends II

Angélique Kidjo

James Farm with Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman and Eric Harland

Hiromi: The Trio Project featuring Anthony Jackson and Simon Phillips

Charles Lloyd with Special Guest Zakir Hussain

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

Mingus Big Band

Ravi Coltrane Quartet

Randy Weston's African Rhythms Trio

Miguel Zenón Presents the Puerto Rican Songbook

John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble with Special Guest Uri Caine

Avishai Cohen's Triveni with Special Guests Joshua Redman and Anat Cohen

Apex: Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green

Brubeck Brothers

Berklee College of Music All Stars

What would you call it?

Bizarre.

That’s the only word that seems to fit this year’s primetime Sunday night glitz that was the 53rd annual Grammy Awards.

If you saw it, you know what I mean. If you missed it, you didn’t miss much, trust me.

Sure, there were scattered poignant moments – beginning with the opening tribute to the ailing Aretha Franklin.

But they were outweighed by the sheer spectacle of the night and artists who felt they had to make spectacles of themselves, starting with Lady Gaga’s eggular entrance. What? And then her blatant performance ripoff of Madonna’s “Express Yourself” in the guise of “Born This Way.” And how about the bicycles zooming around the stage near night's end? And the heavy use of the bleep button by the network censors all night long.

But let’s look at the important stuff, to me anyway, the jazz side of the night – two pros and a con.

- Drummer Roy Haynes – the oldest teenager in jazz – was honored with a richly deserved Lifetime Achievement Award.

- Esparanza Spalding’s first win by a jazz performer of the Grammy for Best New Artist was most welcome – and came out of left field. Particularly since the singer and bassist didn’t even have an album in the running this time. (Her third CD is just out on Head’s Up International). And today, that upset had the legions of fans of the $100 million teenypopper Justin Bieber atwitter with their outrage. I say, quality music prevailed. And to quote Ozzy Osborne at the end of the new Best Buy commercial “What’s a Bieber?”

Here’s the affront to jazz that took place moments later.

- Do you get outraged when your given a serious listen in a jazz club to a great band – and two or three people at the next table won’t shut up, oblivious to the music?

That happened last night when Spalding was performing with the Grammy student jazz ensemble. Two folks on stage – one of them a high-ranking exec from The Recording Academy – blathered on about their programs. Wouldn’t it have been nice if they’d shut up and given the millions who’d never heard of the 26-year-old Ms. Spalding a chance to hear the music she’s made of?

But, hey, we are talking Grammys. Why should I be optimistic something like that will ever happen.

And isn’t it curious that they can only find time to bestow 10 of the 109 awards during the 31/2-hour prime time event.

Despite those failings, jazz did show itself well in the pre-telecast portion.

Kudos to the winners:

Best Pop Instrumental Album

Take Your Pick, Larry Carlton & Tak Matsumoto (335 Records, Inc.)

Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals

”Imagine,” Herbie Hancock, Pink, India.Arie, Seal, Konono No 1, Jeff Beck and Oumou Sangare, from The Imagine Project (Hancock Records)

Best Contemporary Jazz Album
The Stanley Clarke Band, The Stanley Clarke Band (Heads Up International)

Best Jazz Vocal Album

Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee, Dee Dee Bridgewater (Emarcy)

Best Improvised Jazz Solo

“A Change Is Gonna Come,” Herbie Hancock, soloist. Track from: The Imagine Project, (Hancock Records)

Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group

Moody 4B, James Moody (IPO Recordings)

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
Mingus Big Band Live At Jazz Standard, Mingus Big Band (Jazz Workshop, Inc./Jazz Standard)

Best Latin Jazz Album
Chucho's Steps, Chucho Valdés And The Afro-Cuban Messengers (Four Quarters Entertainment)

Best Contemporary World Music Album
Throw Down Your Heart, Africa Sessions Part 2: Unreleased Tracks, Béla Fleck, (Acoustic Planet Records)

Best Instrumental Composition
“The Path Among The Trees,” Billy Childs, composer (Billy Childs Ensemble), Track from: Autumn: In Moving Pictures Jazz - Chamber Music Vol. 2, (ArtistShare)

Best Instrumental Arrangement
“Carlos,” Vince Mendoza, arranger (John Scofield, Vince Mendoza & Metropole Orkest)
Track from: 54 (Emarcy/Universal)

A Grammy twist that’s good for jazz

Bassist and singer Esparanza Spalding has taken the jazz world by storm with her talent and youthful enthusiasm. That’s not a bad thing. A smattering of White House jazz gigs and performing at President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize concert were a help.

So, too, will be her high profile at the 53rd annual GRAMMY Awards in L.A. on February 13.

Spalding will perform on the show, and will co-host the Pre-Telecast Ceremony with singer Bobby McFerrin.

Spalding also is one of five nominees for Best New Artist. The other nominees in that category are Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence & the Machine, and Mumford and Sons. Spalding is the first jazz artist to receive a GRAMMY nomination for the Best New Artist mainstream category in 35 years. Whether or not she wins, the attention may take some of the edge off the current Bieber Fever sweeping America. That would be terrific.

It seems ironic that Spalding is up for Best New Artist, but was not nominated for any of her recordings. But hey, we’re talking the GRAMMYS. There’s always something unfathomable there when it involves jazz.

In GRAMMY-speak, Best New Artist refers when an artist first came to widespread attention. No matter than Spalding’s 2008 debut CD, Esperanza, spent more than 70 weeks on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Albums chart and was the most successful internationally selling debut that year. Last month, her current release Chamber Music Society hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.

Grammy/jazz reprise

For those of you lacking the courage or patience to endure the glitz and non-music that dominate the Grammy Awards, here is a rundown of Sunday night’s winners in the jazz-related categories. Congrats to every one of the fine nominees as well.

How sad that jazz doesn’t get a significant place on the Grammy stage anymore. It was great , however, to see Clark Terry present for his Lifetime Achievement Award acknowledgement. The Recording Academy comp’ed him a room - but how unfortunate that Clark had to pony up the airfare from the East Coast for himself, his wife and his nurse who accompanies whenever he travels now.

Here are the winners:

Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group

Five Peace Band - Live

Chick Corea & John McLaughlin Five Peace Band (Concord Jazz)

Best Contemporary Jazz Album
75
Joe Zawinul & The Zawinul Syndicate (Heads Up International)

Best Jazz Vocal Album

Dedicated To You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman

Kurt Elling (Concord Jazz)

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album

Book One

New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (World Village)

Best Latin Jazz Album -Vocal or Instrumental
Juntos Para Siempre

Bebo Valdés and Chucho Valdés (Sony Music/Calle 54)

Best Improvised Jazz Solo
Dancin' 4 Chicken

Terence Blanchard

Track from Watts (Jeff "Tain" Watts) (Dark Key Music)

Best Instrumental Arrangement

West Side Story Medley

Bill Cunliffe, arranger (Resonance Big Band)

Track from Resonance Big Band Plays Tribute To Oscar Peterson (Resonance Records)

Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)

Quiet Nights

Claus Ogerman, arranger, track from Diana Krall’s Quiet Nights (Verve)

Best Pop Instrumental Album
Potato Hole

Booker T. Jones (Anti)

Best Pop Instrumental Performance

Throw Down Your Heart

Béla Fleck

Track from Throw Down Your Heart: Tales From The Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3 - Africa Sessions (Rounder)

Best Contemporary World Music Album Vocal or Instrumental
Throw Down Your Heart: Tales From The Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3 - Africa Sessions

Béla Fleck (Rounder)

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
Michael Bublé Meets Madison Square Garden

Michael Bublé (143/Reprise)

Best Rock Instrumental Performance

A Day In The Life

Jeff Beck,track from Performing This Week...Live At Ronnie Scott's (Eagle Records)

Best Album Notes
The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935-1946)

Dan Morgenstern, album notes writer Mosaic Records)

Best Historical Album
The Complete Chess Masters (1950-1967)

Andy McKaie, compilation producer; Erick Labson, mastering engineer. Hip-O Select/Geffen Records)

Best Classical Crossover Album

Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs Of Joy And Peace

Yo-Yo Ma wiith Odair Assad, Sergio Assad, Chris Botti, Dave Brubeck, Matt Brubeck, John Clayton, Paquito d'Rivera, Renée Fleming, Diana Krall, Alison Krauss, Natalie McMaster, Edgar Meyer, Cristina Pato, Joshua Redman, Jake Shimabukuro, Silk Road Ensemble, James Taylor, Chris Thile, Wu Tong, Alon Yavnai & Amelia Zirin-Brown. (Sony Classical)

Note: I threw in Jeff Beck for two reasons, even though he won in an instrumental rock category. 1) He recorded his CD at Ronnie Scott’s. 2) He had a super jazz-related performance on the telecast with a Les Paul tribute performance – playing “How High the Moon” – on a Les Paul model guitar, of course.

One thing that doesn’t really make sense to me
You’ll note the category for Best Latin Jazz Album - Vocal or Instrumental.
Latin Jazz is also a part of the now-10-years-old Latin Grammy Awards. Why the duplication? And if it is so necessary, why don’t we have separate nights for Bluegrass Grammys, Blues Grammys, Classical Grammys, Folk Grammys, Jazz Grammys, Movie Soundtrack Grammys and Grab-Your-Crotch & Rhyme Grammys, etc.?

I’m curious why one genre gets its own separate night but NOTeach of the others. Then again, we are talking about a mainstream entertainment awards event.

I think I just answered my own question.

Grammy nomination musings...

The Recording Academy (formerly the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences) is out with its nominations for the 52nd annual Grammy Awards. The full list of nominees is available at the Grammy Web site.

It is encouraging to see that a former jazz categories for so-called "smooth jazz" recordings are listed this time around where they belong - "Pop Instrumental." Finally, we have some truth in advertising.

There are lots of nominations of great merit this time around. I was particularly glad to see the jazz vocal category dominated by mid-career singers who have worked so hard through the years to advance their craft - Kurt Elling, Roberta Gambarini, Luciana Souza and Tierney Sutton - with Randy Crawford joining from the senior generation. Also, kudos to Vince Mendoza for his THREE nominations in the best instrumental arrangement tiers for work on three different projects.

If The Recording Academy had a category for best humorous song title, Paquito d'Rivera would be a shoo-in. D'Rivera is nominated in the best instrumental composition category for his tune "Borat in Syracuse" from his CD Jazz-Clazz.

The Grammy Awards will be bestowed January 31 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.