JAZZ FARE A BIT BETTER AT ’87 GRAMMYS

The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences’ live Video and Light Show, as Tuesday’s Grammy Awards program might well be called, didn’t do any better or worse than it usually does in its treatment of jazz.

With the exception of the male vocal category, all the jazz winners were named in the pre-telecast program. However, from the standpoint of performance during the live TV hours, there was a conspicuous improvement in the quality of what was presented.

There were few surprises among the winners. Wynton Marsalis by now seems to have a permanent place in the minds of both the jazz and classical music voters. Unlike 1983 and 1984, when he won in both fields, this time, despite his victory in the jazz group category, he lost to Vladimir Horowitz in the classical voting and to Miles Davis among the jazz soloists.

That Marsalis (along with his brother, Branford, also a nominee for best soloist) was obliged to compete with the Miles Davis “Tutu” album offered another reminder of the irreversible myopia displayed by the nominating committee, which determined that Davis, after a decade playing mostly rock, still qualified as a jazz artist.

Regardless of its merits or shortcomings, “Tutu” should not have competed with such innovative efforts as Eddie Daniels’ phenomenal “Breakthrough” or even with Dizzy Gillespie’s “Closer to the Source,” both unquestionably jazz albums. Davis was on the show--smiling--with Ruben Blades to present the best male jazz vocal Grammy to Bobby McFerrin.

Predictable but debatable was Diane Schuur’s Grammy for best female jazz vocalist. The album’s merits are indisputable, but so is the fact that her powerful backers, such as Stan Getz and Dave Grusin, coupled with an appearance at the White House and the enthusiasm of Nancy Reagan, have played a major role in her success.

It was odd that keyboardist Clare Fischer, best known as an instrumentalist, was a winner on the strength of the vocal elements in his Latin jazz album, “Free Fall,” though in the jazz fusion department he lost out to the Bob James-David Sanborn “Double Vision.”

The decision to give New Age music its own category this year was a wise one. It would have been absurd for Andreas Vollenweider’s winning “Down to the Moon” album to displace one of the jazz winners.

Although Doc Severinsen’s big band award was no surprise, he reportedly was not invited to take part in the program. His appearance would have provided Middle America with a splendid example of accessible, first-rate swinging orchestral music.

No less surprisingly, Dexter Gordon, whose Oscar-nominated role in the movie “ ‘Round Midnight” has made him the most-talked-about jazzman of the year, also did not take part (he is currently on vacation in Cuernavaca, Mexico), even though a “ ‘Round Midnight” segment was shown, with Bobby McFerrin, Herbie Hancock, Buster Williams and Tony Williams.

The impact of the lifetime achievement award for Billie Holiday was somewhat lessened by the embarrassingly mannered rendition of “God Bless the Child” by Anita Baker. The film clips of Johnny Mercer singing, and the acceptance of his trustees award by his widow, Ginger, provided some touching moments.

For the student of jazz and related forms--given the McFerrin-Hancock appearance and a five-minute blues montage in which Willie Dixon, B.B. King, Albert King, Koko Taylor, Etta James and several others did “Let the Good Times Roll”--this was, at the very least, a Grammy show that tried to make amends for all the past sins of omission.