GRAMMYS....and the winners are....

Last night (February 8) they held the annual music fiasco known as the '48th GRAMMY AWARDS of 2005' at the Staples Center down in LaLa land, and as usual, jazz artists got their fifteen seconds of recognition.

Relegated to a position just below 'country' and well subordinate to such atrocities as 'hip-hop' and 'rap', the  awards for jazz excellence caused nary a ripple in any of the mainstream media accounts that I was able to find.

Although I must confess that I fell asleep long before they got around to awarding prizes to the winners in the jazz category, the morning news reports were full of inspid quotes from some of the winners and performers. For example, somebody named Kanye West, who I guess is some kind of a rap 'star',  came armed with a  long written acceptance speech, which started with 'God....' (It seems he was once pictured on the cover of Rolling Stone' as Jesus Christ on the Cross). 'I'm glad I wrote Him down', he was quoted as saying.

The morning reports also commented on the fact that the evening was notably lacking in the usual obscenity laced acceptance speeches which many of the 'artists'  have, in past award shows, felt compelled to deliver. I would like to think - and I feel quite comfortable in saying that the four letter gutter vocabularies that have been so popular among some of the past GRAMMY winners, (mostly 'rock' and 'hip-hop' genres), would not be a concern if or when jazz musicians are handed the microphone.

In case anybody's wondering how and by what criteria these nominees and eventual winners are selected, one could, if one had an infinite amount of patience and perseverance, go on line to try to find out. But in a nutshell, I can tell you this much: The GRAMMY Foundation is in a partnership affiliation with the Recording Academy, a professional membership advocacy organization, which, best as I can tell, is a Washington DC based lobbying group whose principal function is to 'urge Congressional, as well as state and local action'  on issues that relate to intellectual property, music preservation, music education, 'freedom of expression' (that's the obscenity they maintain is so necessary to good music) and 'radio reform'.

According to to the GRAMMY (originally Gramophone) Awards' official website, recordings and music videos are submitted to Recording Academy members (professionals and other music 'experts') and to record companies, first to assure that they meet all the necessary requirements (whatever those 'requirements' might be) and then, after the screening process, to vote on them 'according to their expertise'. Of course mortals such as you or I are not privy to their membership rosters, so we don't really know just whose 'professional' opinions these choices represent nor are we allowed to examine their 'professional' credentials. We are assured, however, that record sales or chart position in no way influences the voting. Maybe so, but one thing we do know is that the fans and listening public have absolutely nothing whatever to say about it.

So once we have recognized that these 'awards for excellence in music'  are based soley on subjective criteria, and the GRAMMYS Award Show is more about star power, entertainment and glamour than it is about excellence in music, we can sit back and view the results in their proper perspective.

For my money, the real winner last night was a country singer named Keith Urban. He got to go home with Nicole Kidman.

Anyway, for what it's worth, here are the winners in the Jazz Category:

Best Contemporary Album:
The Way UP;
Pat Metheny

Best Vocal Album:
Good Night, Good Luck;
Dianne Reeves

Best Instrumental Solo:
Why Was I Born;
Sonny Rollins
track from Without a Song

Best Instrumental Album, Individual or Group;
Beyond the Sound Barrier;
Wayne Shorter Quartet

Best Large Ensemble Album:
Overtime;
Dave Holland Big Band

Best Latin Jazz Album:
Listen Here!;
Eddie Palmieri

L.A.

Comments

[jazzlover]

Couldn't agree more. When will America start taking its great artistic contribution seriously? It's all about the marketing. The music industry is a big pile of unmoving sludge where nothing moves in or out.

[joared]

I am so happy to have found this blog in the desert of what passes as music today.

[joared]

Forgot to mention, how much I enjoyed listening to Greg Hester Trio. Brought back memories of listening to my husband and his various size jazz groups many years ago. Thank you.

May start a blog in a few months, would love to be able to feature a link so others can hear the group, too.

Thank you