Grammy Nominees Announced – Jazz Is Represented in Children’s Category

I think it’s great that Jazz is represented in the Best Children’s Album category this year – thanks to the wonderful album “How Great Can This Day Be” by singer Lori Henriques (see also my review from January 8th): http://www.ginalovesjazz.com/lori-henriques-catches-ginas-attention-on-new-album

The 58th Grammy Awards show will run on February 15th and today, the nominees have been announced. Congratulations to all and for Record Of The Year, one of the key categories, D’Angelo is nominated for “Really Love” from his “Black Messiah” album. In the Album Of The Year category, Kendrick Lamar is among the nominees for his “To Pimp A Butterfly”. One song from that album, “Alright”, is also nominated for Song Of The Year. And in total, he got 11 nominations!

In the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category, two of the nominees are Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap (see review of their Jerome Kern album on these pages). In the Best Dance Recording category, we prefer Flying Lotus feat. Kendrick Lamar with “Never Catch Me”. Best Contemporary Instrumental Album has the latest by Bill Frisell, Marcus Miller, Snarky Puppy & Metropole Orkest, and Kirk Whalum among nominees.

The Best R&B Performance should go to Hiatus Kaiyote with “Breathing Underwater”. Among the Traditional R&B Performance nominees are Lalah Hathaway (“Little Ghetto Boy”), Jazmine Sullivan (“Let It Burn”), and Charlie Wilson (“My Favorite Part Of You”). The Jazmine Sullivan song and the aforementioned D’Angelo track are also nominated in the Best R&B Song category. Best R&B Album nominees are D’Angelo, Leon Bridges, Jazmine Sullivan, Andra Day, and Charlie Wilson.

And what about Jazz? Best Improvised Jazz Solo: Joey Alexander for “Giant Steps”, Christian McBride for “Cherokee”, Donny McCaslin for “Arbiters Of Evolution” on Maria Schneider’s “The Thompson Fields” album, Joshua Redman for “Friend Or Foe”, and John Scofield for “Past Present”. Bess Jazz Vocal Album nominees are Karrin Allyson, Denise Donatelli, Lorraine Feather, Jamison Ross, and Cécile McLorin Salvant. And Best Jazz Instrumental Album: Joey Alexander, Terence Blanchard feat. the E-Collective, Robert Glasper Trio, Jimmy Greene, and John Scofield. So where’s Kamasi Washington?

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album: Gil Evans Project, Marshall Gilkes & WDR Big Band, Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Maria Schneider Orchestra, and Patrick Williams. Best Latin Jazz Album: Eliane Elias, The Rodriguez Brothers, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet, and Miguel Zenón.

Among the Best World Music Album nominees are Gilberto Gil and Anoushka Shankar. And congratulations also to Antonio Sanchez for a nod in the Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media. In the Best Instrumental Composition category, we have Arturo O’Farrill for “The Afro Latin Jazz Suite” and Bob Mintzer for “Civil War” among the nominees. Best Arrangement, Instrumental Or A Cappella has Bob James for “Ghost Of A Chance” and Best Arrangement, Instruments And Vocals nominations go out to Shelly Berg (for Lorraine Feather’s “Be My Muse”), Patrick Williams for “52nd & Broadway”, Otmaro Ruiz, Maria Schneider, and Jimmy Greene.

And Best Album Notes should go to Joni Mitchell for her own “Love Has Many Faces” project. Geri Allen, Jocelyn Arem and Steve Rosenthal are among the nominees in the Best Historical Album category for “The Complete Concert By The Sea” and among the Best Engineered Albums nominations are Maxime Le Guil and Bernie Grundman for Melody Gardot, and Steve Price, Jochem van der Saag, Jorge Vivo and Paul Blakemore for Diana Krall. Larry Klein is among the Producers Of The Year, Manfred Eicher among the Producers Of The Year, Classical.

And finally, for Best Music Film, we have Liz Garbus for “What Happened, Miss Simone” and Alex Gibney for “Mr. Dynamite: The Rise Of James Brown” among the nominees.