Happy for some amazing jazz artists who grabbed new hardware yesterday. Otherwise, a bit less happy about it. Here's my first attempt at parsing the difference. 🏆 #Grammys2025
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Thank you, as always for your wisdom-infused writing that is yet always light-footed. A proper crime that Kenny Barron has never won. And I won't bite my tongue: enough of Nora Jones, Bela Fleck and even Jon Batiste please.
I just can’t believe they didn’t give Milton Nascimento a seat next to Esperanza Spalding even though they shared a nomination. Glad she spoke out about it
I mean, it literally *is a popularity contest within the Grammy jazz voting body, in the sense of what recordings are most popular among them. The twin questions to ask are who's in and out of that body, and whether the nominating committee could take steps to include a wider range of artists.
At one point I worked "name recognition" into that sentence, but "popularity contest" felt like the more natural colloquialism (and the one I hear groused about). I guess what I meant was that "popularity" all too often wins out, irrespective of the merits at hand.
Thanks, Nate. The #Grammys should air, broadcast and stream all of the Jazz awards and Jazz performances live … and give a special, well-deserved award to Kenny Barron and John Clayton. #Grammys2025
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Shout out to Catherine Russell and Kurt Elling. 🎶📻❕