The 54th annual Grammy® Awards show was held last night in Los Angeles, broadcast by CBS television here in the United States, and awards were given out to a slew of artists but, due to the elimination of over 30 categories last year, only one blues recording was honored with an award. I've moaned and griped about this before, so I won't go into too much detail, but the awards for blues music were cut in half, from two to one. Latin music was reduced from seven categories to four, with Latin jazz eliminated altogether, and Cajun, Hawaiian, and Native American music were combined into one "regional roots" award, among other injustices.
More interesting, perhaps, were the protests surrounding this year's Grammy® awards celebration, a group of around 70 Latin jazz musicians and their supporters marching outside the Staples Center during the Grammy® pre-telecast. "We're creating public awareness more than anything else," said Bobby Matos, a longtime Latin jazz musician, told Billboard magazine. "We're not here to stop here anybody from entering the Grammys. We're just hoping that NARAS realizes that they made a mistake. In a perfect world they would reverse their decision today, do it on the air and announce a (special) concert for those categories." This same group delivered a petition with some 23,000 signatures to the headquarters of National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences last Friday asking for the missing categories to be reinstated.
As Spin magazine mentioned in their article about the Grammy® outrage, the Academy has a long and disturbing history of ignoring talented artists, and musicians as influential as Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley have been snubbed by the organization in the past. This year's winner for "Best Blues Album"? The Tedeschi Trucks Band's Revelator album took that Grammy® award...seems kind of anti-climatic at this point, doesn't it? Can't wait for the Blues Music Awards in May...
Photo courtesy Sony Masterworks
Comments
Reverend while I applaud your complaints on the omissions. You did an injustice in not applauding the winner. TTB’s “The Revelator” was one of the best albums of the year in any genre. Even Rolling Stones mag. recognized it as such. Derek did not dominate instead allowed all of the musicians a chance to shine on this album and they delivered. Susan’s vocals easily carried over the notes of a 11 piece band and Derek slid into the songs for a short solo at the right moments. They earned this Grammy against Warren and Greg who had fine albums too.
Since it was not broadcasted it would have been nice to see a short video or read from your column what Derek and Susan had to say upon receiving the Grammy. Come on Dude.
Looking at the kinds of artists they honor,why would ANY artist lament not being a part of that nonsense.
I know Bonnie Raitt and Alicia Keys did a tribute song to Etta James, but it would have been appropriate to show a picture and mention Etta James in the rolling credits of Artists which we lost in the past year.
“Revelator” is a fine album and all credit to Derek ans Susan and the boys in the band. Good stuff and well done. Congratulations. Also a fine effort by all the artists nominated – Greg’s album is very good as well. Thank you for bringing fantastic music for us to live by.
Well, we could all boycott the Grammys!!!!
I WOULD LOVE TO TURN ON THE GRAMMYS AND SEE A BLUES ARTIST FEATURED IN THE SHOW LIKE TO HAVE THEM APPEAR LIVE ON THE SHOW. BLUES R ALIVE AND GROWING STRONGER AND STRONGER EVERYDAY.
I would merge best song and best performance in all genres, remove divides between modern and traditional, then narrow and add to the genres.
(One of my conclusions: http://t.co/FhqHVI4S )
woops, hit SEND too early
In a year of more solidly good than great albums, the nominees were outshone by lesser-knows (JP Soars, Ian Siegal, Ben Prestage, Eric Bibb…) who didn’t get a look. Gregg Allman‘s Low Country Blues is closest to a classic, but is also mostly covers so maybe Tedeschi Trucks did deserve the win. And no Best Blues Song. Why? Gary Clark Jr could have mopped up with Bright Lights.