JAZZ MUSICIANS PICKET GRAMMY TESTIMONIAL

About 30 jazz musicians and fans picketed the Toluca Lake Tennis Club on Tuesday, protesting a testimonial luncheon for Grammy TV special producer Pierre Cossette as part of a just-launched campaign against the lack of jazz representation in the three-hour CBS-TV special Feb. 26.

Bassist Mike Palter, the protest organizer, read testimonials support from persons as varied as singer Mel Torme and actor Nehemiah Persoff demanding that jazz artists be included in all future Grammy Awards ceremonies.

Among the more than a dozen slogans on signs carried by the protesters: “Bix Not Bucks,” “No Time for Jazz” and “No Time for Joe.” The first reference was to legendary jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke, while the last sign referred to 66-year-old Joe Williams, who won a Grammy for best jazz vocal this year, but was not invited to perform on the show.

Despite the frustration of the protesters, the demonstration itself was low key. At one point, the president of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences went over to one of the marchers and patted him on the back.

Academy president Mike Melvoin, a jazz musician himself, also informed the press that the academy, which sponsors the annual Grammy achievement awards, is already looking into ways to ensure that jazz performances be a regular part of future telecasts. Melvoin said that recommendations in this regard will be presented at a national trustees meeting in mid-May in Tucson, Ariz.

“This is not the only community that is disturbed,” Melvoin said, referring to that segment of the recording academy devoted to jazz. He said that similar complaints about lack of telecast exposure have been registered recently by Latino and country musicians. It’s important to remember that the Grammy special is “nothing but a sampler” of American music, he added.

From the date Grammy nominations were announced, Jan. 10, the scripting of the Grammy special was like “a tower of Jell-O,” Melvoin said. The talent line-up for the show changed several times, he said, but it was to be built on one of three “blockbuster” presentations--none of which materialized until the last moment.

He said that Bruce Springsteen, Prince or the “We Are the World” benefit recording ensemble were possibilities to climax the show, but all three looked doubtful until Prince agreed two days before the show to participate. If he hadn’t come through, the Grammy telecast producers were planning to rush in, ironically, with a jazz finale.