Esperanza Spalding smashes precedent with GRAMMY nod

Just in case you missed the rock-‘em sock-‘em Nominations Special on CBS TV – the GRAMMY® nominations are in. Last night’s hour-long program revealed the nominees for just a handful of the Recording Academy’s 109 awards (which will be presented February 13, 2011); you can see a complete list of the nominations at grammy.com.

That’s where you can locate the six jazz categories, along with the several others in which jazz musicians often figure heavily, such as composition and arrangement.  As has been true in recent years, the list of nominees does a decent job of reflecting the year in the jazz mainstream – and,  in a few cases, somewhat beyond.

(Quick disclaimer: as a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, a.k.a. The Recording Academy, I vote in the preliminary round of balloting that helps determine the nominations, along with thousands of others.)

In the biggest surprise (but a most welcome one), the captivating jazz bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding garnered a nomination for Best New Artist. That’s not “best new jazz artist,” but best overall: Spalding was nominated in a category historically dominated by popsters. The last time a jazz musician won in this category was – well, never; there hasn't even been a jazz musician nominated since 1975. Previous winners have included Bette Midler, Sheryl Crow, Bruce Hornsby, Bonnie Raitt, Hootie & the Blowfish, Christine Aguilera, Maroon 5, and Carrie Underwood.

Among Spalding’s competition are the tween heartthrob Justin Bieber and the rapper known as Drake. If there were any doubt that the genre-blending Spalding had broken through jazz’s glass ceiling, it’s convincingly shattered by her nomination in this category. (Worth noting is the fact that Spalding – who performs at Symphony Center on December 10 – did not receive a nomination in any of the jazz categories themselves, even though she has established herself as a terrific jazz bassist and bandleader.)

Of course, from the standpoint of sheer talent, it would be a rout: pitting a brilliant and incisive musician like Spalding against the feckless Bieber is about as fair as having Serena Williams face off against the ball boys at Wimbledon. But the GRAMMYs aren’t just about talent and ability -- which means Bieber actually has a good chance of winning.

As for the jazz categories, I’ll quibble over some of the choices, but not much, because there's nothing terribly out of place. In fact, the presence of several new names among the nominees provides another welcome surprise: based on past GRAMMY polls, I don’t think anyone could have expected nominations for the challenging pianist Vijay Iyer (Instrumental Album), the iconoclastic Darcy James Argue's Secret Society (Large Ensemble Album), or the powerful but little-known Gregory Porter (Best Vocal Album).

The GRAMMY voters may never be ready for balls-to-the-walls avant-garde jazz; if John Coltrane or Ornette Coleman came along now, I doubt they’d gain GRAMMY recognition. But this year’s selections do contain those several cutting-edge artists, mixed in with old favorites like Freddie Cole, Dave Holland, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and the 85-year-old James Moody, whose Moody 4B – nominated for Best Instrumental Album – is likely to be his last.

The vocal category actually boasts three first-time nominees (L.A. singer Lorraine Feather and east-coaster Denise Donatelli join Porter in that distinction). The Contemporary Jazz Album nominees feature another first-timer in Trombone Shorty (Troy Andrews), the charismatic New Orleans hornman and vocalist. This selection might be partly attributable to Shorty’s presence on the HBO series Treme and on the international rock circuit, opening for the likes of Dave Matthews and Jeff Beck. But his album, Backatown, is a genuinely innovative fusion of classic N’Awlins street beats, various rock elements, samples and loops, bursting with energetic audacity.

By contrast, the Best Improvised Solo category brims with the familiar: Alan Broadbent, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Hank Jones (all pianists), and Wynton Marsalis (trumpet). This is a departure from last year, when excellent solos by a number of first-time nominees made the grade.

But here’s the rub: with the exception of the late Hank Jones’s acceptable but merely polite solo, I have to applaud every one of the choices. That’s not my usual reaction to this category. What’s more, I can tell you right now that I’ll be casting my GRAMMY vote for the solo from Marsalis – and no one is more surprised about that than me.

I have plenty of issues with Marsalis’s music and his approach to jazz history. But this solo – performed on the excellent Portrait In Seven Shades, a suite composed by Ted Nash for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra – has everything going for it, from bluesy pathos to motivic development to just the right amount of his undeniable (but often exhibitionist) technique. The realization that Marsalis still has the capacity to construct this kind of improvisation is worth the price of the album all on its own.

Jazz people show up well in the Composition and Arrangement field, where three GRAMMYs are given: of the 15 total nominees, 13 are jazz personages, among them Patrick Williams and Vince Mendoza (two noms each), Billy Childs, and Geoffrey Keezer. And for Best Liner Notes, the popular (and deseverdly admired) jazz writer Ashley Kahn scored for his essay accompanying the John Coltrane reissue Side Steps.

I’ll handicap all the races early next year, a week or two before the the awards ceremony. Till then, let the debates begin.