Jazz breaking news: Robert Glasper and Esperanza Spalding Among Jazz Grammy Winners
Monday, February 11, 2013
The 2013 Grammy Awards, held on 10 February, saw pianist Robert Glasper (pictured left) become the second jazz artist of recent times to cause an upset outside of their allotted category, winning Best R&B Album for his vocal-led set Black Radio, beating fellow nominees R.
Kelly, Anthony Hamilton, Tyrese and Tamia. Black Radio features a swathe of top R&B and rap vocal stars including Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Bilal, Lalah Hathaway and Lupe Fiasco on music performed by Glasper’s Experiment band which features saxophonist/singer Casey Benjamin, drummer Chris Dave and bassist Derrick Hodge.
Esperanza Spalding, who famously triumphed over Justin Bieber to win Best New Artist in 2011, this year won Best Jazz Vocal Album for her sophisticated yet accessible Radio Music Society set, which mixed soul, funk and jazz originals with sly revamps of Michael Jackson and Wayne Shorter tunes also in the mix.
The other notable winner of the night was legendary pianist Chick Corea who picked up the Best Improvised Jazz Solo with vibist Gary Burton for their duo album Hot House, as well as the Best Instrumental Jazz Composition for ‘Mozart Goes Dancing’, a tune from the same album. Guitarist Pat Metheny picked up the Best Jazz Instrumental Album for his Unity Band record, which also spotlighted saxophonist Chris Potter, while trumpeter Arturo Sandoval won Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for Dear Diz (Every Day I Think Of You), and The Clare Fischer Latin Jazz Big Band won the Best Latin Jazz Album category for ¡Ritmo!
– Mike Flynn