The Wall Street Journal-20080205-The Grammys Push the Glitz
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The Grammys Push the Glitz
Full Text (1077 words)This year's Grammy nominations have the typical safe bets up in the high-gloss categories: Beyonce, Foo Fighters, Justin Timberlake, Rhianna and Amy Winehouse, the nominees for "Record of the Year," have invested heavily in creating images that extend beyond the music world, though in the seemingly drug-addled Ms. Winehouse's case, it's a different kind of investment. In the "Album of the Year" category, the nominees are Foo Fighters, Vince Gill, Herbie Hancock, Kanye West and Ms. Winehouse -- not an obscure name in the bunch.
As they're presented on Sunday evening, think of the top-of-the- lists Grammys as awards for marketing and celebrity -- and don't ask why the Oscars seem to get it right while the Grammys can't -- and you'll be a little less frustrated when your favorite new album is ignored. Besides, you'll find plenty of great rock and pop music down the list of 110 categories. Years from now, some of these albums will be acknowledged as superior to the mainstream winners.
Take, for example, the "Best Electronic/Dance Album" list, which is "Category 14 in Field 3 -- Traditional Pop" in Grammyspeak. All five albums are worth celebrating, and while they pulse with deep electronic beats, they're something other than soundtracks for raves. The Chemical Brothers'"We Are the Night" (Virgin) and LCD Soundsystem's "Sound of Silver" (Capitol) blur the boundaries between electronica and rock, while Justice's "Cross" (Downtown) carries a touch of heavy-metal melodrama. Shiny Toy Guns' "We Are Pilots" (Universal) is charming, mid-'80s-style pop, and at times Tiesto's "Elements of Life" (Ultra) revives '90s disco.
"Best Bluegrass Album" (Category 43) and "Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album" (Category 49) also show across-the-board quality. The Category 43 discs by Cherryholmes, J.D. Crowe and the New South, Jim Lauderdale, the Seldom Scene and Tony Trischka will please fans of country, folk and high lonesome harmonies. And the Category 49 nominations salvage the otherwise odd choices in the jazz areas.
"The Best Contemporary Jazz Album" category seems designed to honor smooth jazz and electric jazz, but Mr. Hancock's very fine and mostly acoustic Joni Mitchell tribute and Eldar's piano musings are here too. "The Best Jazz Instrumental Album" list plays it safe by ignoring newcomers and the entire ECM catalog. But the nominated albums by orchestras led by Terence Blanchard, Bob Florence, Bill Holman, Maria Schneider and Charles Tolliver are a joy, steeped in the tradition but distinctly modern and inventive.
Bobby Sanabria's delightful "Big Band Urban Folk Tales" (Jazzheads) -- which takes on Afro-Cuban music, samba, blues and Frank Zappa -- would fit easily in the large-ensemble category. But, in a move that feels like segregation, it's in the "Best Latin Jazz Album" group, as are small combo outings by Paquito D'Rivera, Sammy Figueroa and Hector Martignon that would appeal to any fan of traditional jazz. The fifth album in the category, Steve Khan's "Borrowed Time" (ESC), features Latin sounds on only some of its tracks; it would have been a good choice as a contemporary-jazz nominee. The Spanish Harlem Orchestra's "United We Swing" (Six Degrees) might have been a better fit for Latin jazz or the big-band list, but it's in the "Best Tropical Album" category.
TobyMac's "Portable Sounds" (ForeFront) is crisp, guitar-driven urban soul that deserves a wider audience; an occasional mention of his faith places it in the "Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album" category. The "Best Traditional Gospel Album" list is a mixed bag of gospel styles. Smokie Norful's fine "Life Changing" (EMI Gospel) could easily have been slotted with pop gospel, and in a just world, the Clark Sisters'"Live -- One Last Time" (EMI Gospel) would be nominated as "Best R&B Album." It's as much soul music as it is music for the soul.
To be cited in the "Best Reggae Album," it helps if you've been around for several decades. The nominees include Burning Spear, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Sly & Robbie's the Taxi Gang and Toots & the Maytals -- all of whom have been recording since the early '70s, if not before. The fifth nominee is Bob Marley's son, Stephen. You'd be forgiven if you have the feeling that not much thought went into putting together that list.
The "Best Contemporary World Music Album" list is similarly disappointing, but for different reasons. While mainstream pop fans show a lack of passion for reggae's new artists, their interest in other forms of world music -- especially modern, genre-bending African and Brazilian sounds -- is high. Yet the nominations in the category are surprisingly routine: "Momento" (Crammed Discs) by Bebel Gilberto, "Gil Luminoso" (DRG) by Gilberto Gil, "Djin Djin" (Razor & Tie) by Angelique Kidjo, and "An Ancient Muse" (Verve) by Loreena McKennitt fail to approach each artists' best work. The fifth album, the eponymous "CeU" (Six Degrees), is the Brazilian musician's mildly pleasing bossa-nova-meets-electronica debut.
No matter how hard one tries, it's next-to-impossible to make sense of some of the Grammy nominations. The blues and folk categories read like they're the place where American music that doesn't fit easily anywhere else is tossed. Bettye LaVette's gritty "The Scene of the Crime" (Anti) received a "Best Contemporary Blues Album" nomination, but it's not a blues disc, nor is Eric Clapton and J.J. Cale's "The Road to Escondido" (Reprise). Tom Waits's wonderfully eccentric "Orphans" (Anti) is in the "Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album" category, though very few of its 56 songs come close to a reasonable definition of either folk or Americana. By the way, for some reason there are only four nominees, rather than the customary five, in the "Best Traditional Blues Album" group. Fans of that idiom could come up with a few suggestions, I'd bet.
For me, it's unforgivable that Feist's extraordinary "The Reminder" -- lumped in with Ms. Winehouse's "Back to Black" (Universal) and bland discs by Bon Jovi, Maroon 5 and Paul McCartney for the "Best Pop Vocal Album" -- isn't a nominee for "Album of the Year." At least she's up for "Best New Artist," though "The Reminder" is her fourth solo album.
The Grammy folks caution that the new-artist category recognizes "the first recording which establishes the public identity of that artist." But you have to wonder who they mean by "the public." If it's industry insiders and people who buy what's promoted most aggressively, you'll know why the Grammys miss the mark about what's worth celebrating about contemporary popular music.
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Mr. Fusilli is the Journal's rock and pop music critic. Write to him at [email protected].
