Grammy Nominations Reveal Pros, Cons and Surprises

A second look at this week’s jazz Grammy nominations reveals some of the unusual aspects of the 1999 picks, as well as a few of the persistent problems raised by the recording academy’s method of categorization.

It was no surprise that Blue Note Records culled seven nominations, spread over five of the six categories. The company consistently produces high-quality jazz recordings in some quantity. Verve’s failure to gain more than two nominations in the jazz listings, however, was considerably more unexpected. But the company nonetheless has much to crow about with the inclusion of Diana Krall’s “When I Look in Your Eyes” in the best album of the year nominations--an extremely rare achievement for a jazz album.

And it was good to see the single nominations of small labels such as Max Jazz, Compass, Arkadia, Asian Improv, MAMA, Zebra, Blue Lady and LatinJazz match the single jazz nominations of such powerhouse companies as Atlantic, Elektra and Columbia.

The five entries for Concord (and its associated labels, Stretch and Concord Picante) were a bit harder to understand. And that four of the nominations came in the categories of best jazz instrumental solo and best jazz instrumental performance, individual or group was even more peculiar.

Part of the problem is because these categories are, quite simply, unmanageable. What exactly are the criteria used by the academy to determine which five performances--of all the thousands of individually improvised jazz solos recorded over the course of a year--should be placed in nomination?

And how can it be--again, given all those thousands of solos--that “Change,” by Chick Corea and Origin, and “Like Minds,” by an all-star ensemble of Corea, Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes and Dave Holland (both Concord albums), could be nominated in both categories? Curious and curiouser. Perhaps it’s time for the academy to give some serious thought to how accurately these two confusing and overlapping categories can be expected to honor accomplishments across the length and breadth of the jazz field.

It’s also worth noting that the best instrumental composition field continues to be a refuge for jazz composers, a kind of unofficial adjunct to the best large jazz ensemble performance. And that’s not all bad, since--without the category--four fine recordings by David Benoit (“Dad’s Room”), Don Sebesky (“Joyful Noise Suite”), Corea (“Little Flamenco”) and Paquito D’Rivera (“Tropicana Nights”) might have been overlooked.

Finally, it was good to see the pervasive influence of jazz reaching into other areas. The traditional pop vocal performance grouping was swinging, with Tony Bennett’s “Bennett Sings Ellington,” Harry Connick Jr.’s “Come by Me” and Bobby Short’s “You’re the Top.”

And jazz was present in force in four of the five entries in the best boxed recording package category: “The Blue Note Years,” “The Complete Jazz at the Philharmonic on Verve 1944-49,” “John Coltrane--The Classic Quartet--Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings” and “Miles Davis--The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions.” Not a bad collection by any standards, with each thoroughly deserving of a Grammy.

Jazz Decathlon: Jazz has been chosen as the musical genre for Academic Decathlon 2000 teams to study in depth. On Saturday afternoon at Bravo High School in East Los Angeles, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra will provide a lecture/demonstration performance workshop for teams from the area. Approximately 60 teams of 10 participants each are expected to attend the closed event. Several will be invited to attend future Clayton-Hamilton programs at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as part of their continuing study of the music.

Jazz Funding: JazzNet, established by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, is providing more than $3 million in grants to regional organizations for the furtherance of jazz creation, presentation and education. The funding includes $2.8 million from the Duke Foundation and $280,000 from the NEA. Eight organizations--the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Mo.; the Artists Collective in Hartford, Conn.; Cityfolk of Dayton, Ohio; Earshot Jazz in Seattle; Outpost Productions of Albuquerque; the San Francisco Jazz Organization; the Thelonious Monk Institute; and Newark Public Radio (WBGO in Newark, N.J.)--will each receive up to $110,000 every two years. Four other recipients, representing six organizations in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Burlington, Vt., and Pittsburgh, will receive up to $65,000 per year.

Passings: Cornetist and occasional trumpeter Nat Adderley, who died Sunday at 68 due to complications of diabetes, spent much of his professional life in the shadow of his brother, alto saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley. To some extent, that was understandable. Cannonball was one of the great post-Parker voices on his instrument, still not fully acknowledged for the size and individuality of his contribution to the music.

But Nat Adderley made his own impact via compositions such as “Jive Samba,” “Sermonette” and “Work Song,” all of which helped establish the popularity of soul jazz in the ‘60s and eventually impacted the pop- and R&B-tinged; jazz of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Although his horn playing was clearly influenced by Miles Davis, Adderley’s strong melodic tendencies and the easy swing inherent to his playing made him a consistently listenable improviser.

The roundup of notable passings in this column recently inadvertently failed to mention bassist Andy Simpkins, who died of cancer on June 2 at 67. Simpkins may have been best known to the wider jazz audience from his tenure with the highly successful Three Sounds in the ‘60s. But he also spent years with George Shearing and a decade with Sarah Vaughan. Perhaps most important of all, however, his playing was valued wherever he went, and his capacity to fit musically and creatively into every imaginable jazz setting was legendary.