Jazz breaking news: Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea, and Christian McBride Among Grammy Nominees
Thursday, December 1, 2011
OK the jazz Grammys mean less in the UK than in the US and the nominations have even less significance than the big night next year when the winners are announced but nonetheless it would be foolish to ignore them.
Also, and this is an important point, why do The Brits not have specialist music categories with jazz and world music prime candidates for inclusion? Sheer disdain for the music may well be the answer, and don’t hold your breath if you think the UK music industry is suddenly going to realise that jazz deserves and needs greater exposure. It just isn’t going to happen although it would be wonderful if the industry had a change of heart.
At least the Grammys have greater range in terms of musical categories and exposure in the mainstream music industry does of course help jazz. The jazz nominations announced last night included some very familiar names including the great Sonny Rollins (pictured), up for Best Jazz Instrumental Album with the marvellous Road Shows Vol. 2 which includes not only an extraordinary solo from Rollins on ‘Sonnymoon For Two’, but also the contribution of Ornette Coleman who had walked unannounced on to the stage of the Beacon Theatre in New York to join Sonny and who wails on the rarely heard C Melody saxophone of all horns. Rollins' solo is included in the Best Improvised Jazz Solo list as well.
Apart from Newk, Chick Corea, Christian McBride, Fred Hersch, Randy Brecker and Tony Bennett are among some of those nominated in a large list of categories. To cast your eyes over the full list go to bit.ly/sH4SyY
– Stephen Graham
Photo: Tim Dickeson