And the Jazz GRAMMY goes to . . . (Predicting Sunday's awards)

 

And as usual, jazz fans can get their fix a couple hours early: the jazz GRAMMYs, like most of the other 74 awards, will be announced hours before the CBS logo gives way to the opening act (7 PM Chicago time). 

 

Unlike most other awards shows, the GRAMMY telecast downplays the actual awards in favor of the full-blown, often unique performances that have made it the nation’s pre-eminent musical variety show. Only a handful of awards are presented on the three-hour-plus broadcast; the rest of the announcements take place earlier in the day. 

 

You can watch these presentations during the “pre-telecast” Awards Show, streamed live on the GRAMMY site, Sunday afternoon from 3 till 5:30 (Chicago time). Several years ago, The Recording Academy (GRAMMY’s parent) remade this once perfunctory event into a full-scale production, with a live band, several musical performances, guest presenters, and celebrity emcees; it’s now an eminently watchable production, especially for those of us interested in all the awards that Adele is not presumed to win.

 

(Disclaimer: your Chicago Jazz Music Examiner is a voting member and former national officer of The Recording Academy, as well as a member of the organization’s Chicago chapter. I don’t believe that should affect the validity or logic of my statements here, but if you think it does, so be it.)

 

Before I share my thoughts on this year’s jazz nominees – who will win and who should win – I need to tell you about two significant changes in the awards process, implemented for the first time in this year’s voting.

 

You likely heard about the first such alteration – the winnowing of the GRAMMY categories from 109 to 78. This decision resulted in some high-profile protests by those whose categories were removed or folded into other categories; the most notorious of this is the lawsuit (?!) filed on behalf of Latin-jazz musicians, claiming that the decision will have “a detrimental effect” on their careers. (That’s quite stretch, given that a tiny fraction of artists ever win a GRAMMY, and given the fact that the vast majority of GRAMMY-winning albums have seen minimal if any uptick in album sales as a result.)

 

A frequently cited complaint claims the awards were all cut from “ethnic and minority” categories. But an actual perusal of the awards list shows that the contraction took place on a mostly evenhanded basis across the board, from rap to r-and-b to classical. As part of this process, though, the Jazz Field of categories went from six awards to four.

 

The second change – which you almost certainly did not hear about – will have the greatest effect on the Jazz Vocal category. I’ll discuss that change tomorrow, when I predict who among the singers will take home the trophy. 

 

For now, though, here are my thoughts on the categories involving albums of instrumental jazz. (You can find a list of all the GRAMMY nominees here.)

 

 

 

Who should win: Sonny Rollins, Road Shows Vol. 2 (Doxy)

 

Who will win: Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, Forever (Concord)

 

Why: None of the six albums nominated by Academy voters made my list of the year’s Top Ten. But that doesn’t mean I dislike or disrepect the nominees: I liked ten albums better, but every one of the nominees is unquestionably a quality item. And big kudos to the voters for choosing albums by youngster Gerald Clayton and resilient veteran Fred Hersch, two pianists who are critics’ picks but lesser known to the general public.

 

I take a back seat to no one in my idolatry of Sonny Rollins’s art and career; but this album, drawn from concert recordings in 2010, didn’t knock me out when it arrived. After it scored a resounding win in the Rhapsody.com Jazz Critics Poll (formerly the Village Voice Jazz Critics Poll), I went back and listened again; it’s still not among my favorites of the year, but with contributions by Ornette Coleman and Jim Hall, I think it does deserve the win among those in the running.

 

Not that this really matters: the name of Chick Corea, who has 16 GRAMMYs to his name, is absolute catnip for Academy voters. What’s more, this album reunites the rhythm section from his very first award-winning disc – No Mystery, by his fusion juggernaut Return To Forever – back in 1975. Put this one in the bank; it’s a safer bet than shares in Facebook.

 

 

 

Who should win: Randy Brecker with DR Big Band, The Jazz Ballad Songbook (Half Note)

 

Who will win: see above

 

Why: Brecker’s album gets both the prediction and my nod, but for different reasons. 

 

I think his album will win because he’s a known quantity. He’s won before, and he has plenty of name recognition – in part because of his collaborations with his late brother, the saxophonist Michael, and in part because of his place as one of the music’s indisuptably outstanding trumpet players throughout his 45-year career. 

 

I think it should win for three reasons. First, Brecker’s work throughout the disc neatly sums up his lifetime of experience, in solos that eddy and whirl and soar as effortlessly as thought. Second, the arrangements are strong and in some cases even innovative; and third, the Danish Radio Big Band – like most of the government-supported jazz orchestras of western Europe – plays those arrangements with precision and power.

 

For sheer manpower, Christian McBride’s The Good Feeling would trounce the field: the band includes trumpeter Nicholas Payton, saxists Steve Wilson and Ron Blake, trombonists Steve Davis and Doug Purviance, and several others from New York’s deep crop of top players. And McBride’s arrangements, representing his entry into big-band writing, are solid and polished – just not especially distinctive. (At least not yet: now that he’s got his feet wet, watch our for the sequel.)

 

Gerald Wilson’s Legacy – for which I wrote liner notes – also has lively writing and some inspired solos, but I’d have loved to see a greater thematic unity to the program. (But at 93, Wilson is a sentimental favorite as well as a deserving nominee, so we'll see.)

 

By the way, there are two quite good Latin-jazz albums nominated here, one from pianist-arranger Arturo O’Farrill (40 Acres And A Burro), and one from the alto saxist and MacArthur Fellowship winner Miguel Zenón (Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook). Their inclusion runs counter to the contention, among Latin-jazz protesters, that such albums cannot compete head to head with more “mainstream” jazz projects. But in this case, I think they split the vote among Latin-leaning big-band fans