Backstage At The Grammys

Asked about the 100 women who participated in this record, she said, “The women who sang on this album will be very happy. They have been praying for me, they said, to win this Grammy. Even there in Africa, so far away from this place, they know what it means to win this award in America. And they all thought it would be a no-brainer, that this would win.”

She laughed heartily, and said, “A no-brainer? No, not at all. They said, ‘We are gonna pray for you, and next time you should bring some American women.’

They asked me, ‘Why do Americans and people in the western world care so much about our misery? Do they not have misery in America?’ I told them, ‘Of course they have misery!’ But the truth is that this music is not just about their misery. It is about their beauty.”

For Best Children’s Album, the Grammy went to Neela Vaswani, winning over mostly musical competitors, with a spoken word album about the remarkable Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, called I am Malala.

She dedicated the award to Malala for her “great work on lasting peaceful change,” and quoted Malala by dedicating it also “to those forgotten children who want peace, who want school, who want change…”

Backstage she was asked about winning this award in a music awards show for this spoken word album. “The music of words off the page is as important as music on the page,” she said. And quoted Malala in remembering “those voiceless children who want change.” She said she never met Malala, “which is good because she was very busy going to school.”

A first time Grammy nominee, she makes her living not making records but teaching, serving as the Professor of Creative Writing at Spalding University, and was shocked when she realized she had received a nomination for a Grammy. “I went on the internet just to check what Pharell might be winning,” she said, “and then I found out I was nominated. I didn’t even know this could qualify for a Grammy!”

Winner for Best Roots Gospel was Mike Farris for his great album inspired by black spirituals, Shine For All The People.

“This is a unique musical heritage here in America,” he said. “And this is my mission to shine a light on it, to show the world this music, and to bring it out of the attic. There are two basic seeds of western music: old Black spirituals, where it all began, and old Appalachian music.”

“I’m from Tennessee,” he continued. “I was born and raised with it. That is the beauty of being raised in the South, it is so fertile. This ground is so rich with all this music we all know. Blues, rock, jazz, R&B – we wouldn’t have had any of that without the ground that I walk on.”

Asked what the impact of winning this Grammy would have on his career, he said, “You have a Grammy- winning Mike Farris forever and ever, and you carry it with you for the rest of your life. It brings more people to the table, and opens more doors, opens more hearts, more ears. It is not easy for a white guy to do this music. And it’s true the word ‘Gospel’ is a wall that stops a lot of people. So anything I can do to show music has no boundaries, music breaks down all walls, that matters.”

The winner for Best Recording Package went to Jeff Ament, Don Pendleton, Joe Spix and Jerome Turner, the art directors for Pearl Jam’s Lightning Bolt. Accepting the award, Ament thanked Eddie Vedder, and said, “ The best art in this life comes from collaboration.” And then he added, “Thanks to the Grammys for continuing to honor the package even in this age of the tiny iTunes thumbnail.”

For Best Album Notes, the winner was Ashley Kahn for the album Offering: Live at Temple University, featuring the late great John Coltrane.

Kahn, who has written two books on Coltrane and teaches courses on his music, said, “Coltrane for me has been a lifelong pursuit. His impact is worldwide; far beyond the jazz circle. No one can touch the sax and not quote or resonate Coltrane. Like the way Hendrix took the electric guitar and extended it into places no one had been before, and impacted that instrument in a way nobody has ever since, really used up all of it, Trane did that with sax. He took it farther than anyone before him.”

Winning for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Morning Phase by Beck, was Tom Elmhirst, David Greenbaum, Florian Lagatta, Cole Greif-Neill, Robbie Nelson, Darrell Thorp, Cassidy Turbin and Joe Visciano.

“Beck worked so hard on this album it was unbelievable,” said Elmhirst. “We mastered and mastered and mastered till he got what he wanted.”

For Best Classical Compendium, the winner was Partch; Plectra and Percussion, based on the amazing music of Harry Partch, accepted by its producer, John Schneider.

Harry Partch, he explained, not only invented his own instruments, he invented his own system of music – called microtonal – which has 24 notes to the scale, as opposed to the conventional 12. Asked where he finds musicians who can play this music on these unique instruments, he said, “I look all around, and then I go to Cal Arts.”

Awarded for Best Jazz Vocal was five-time Grammy winner Diane Reeves, for Beautiful Life.
Asked what music inspired her as a kid, she said, “I listened to all music growing up. Music had no boundaries. You’d see Miles Davis and Ravi Shankar on the same bill, Ella Fitzgerald singing the Beatles. I loved all of it.”

Arturo O’Farill won for Best Latin Jazz Album, for The Offense of the Drum. “It’s a title the record company hated, because they didn’t want the word ‘offense’ in there. But football teams have an offense. It is not a bad word.” Explaining further, he said, “The drum has amazing power. It can be used for evil. People played the drum in ancient times to precede battles.”

About the evolution of jazz, he said, “I think jazz is in the process of morphing; I think jazz is becoming the playground of people from all over the world. Some of the greatest jazz people are coming from India. We don’t own jazz, it is part of the world’s heritage, and we are proud to carry this legacy. A hand touches the skin on a drum, and lives change.”

For Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, the Grammy went to Gordon Goodwin’s phenomenal Big Phat Band for Life In The Bubble. Goodwin approached the press with a lot of humor and verve, and said that jazz artists need to meet their audience halfway. “The genres are all folding together,” he said. “It doesn’t just have swing music – we can play rock and roll. This redefines what big bands can do. This is a 21st century version of what a big band can do. “ His big band features amazing musicians, most of them stellar L.A. session players, such as guitarist Andrew Synowiec and sax players Jeff Driskill, Jay Mason and Kevin Garren.

Jazz legend Chick Corea, looking like he hasn’t aged in about two decades now, won for Best Improvised Jazz Solo for Fingerprints, as well as Best Jazz Instrumental Album for Trilogy, recorded with the Chick Corea Trio.

Asked why of all the jazz groups he could form he chose a trio, he said, “In jazz having a trio, with piano, bass and drums is classic; it is the rhythm section. It’s the perfect combination of musicians to play together.

“And this particular trio was real special. Everything was recorded live. I like music where I don’t have to give musicians a lot of instruction. You show them the piece and you play.”
Since many have predicted for year the demise of jazz as a living genre, I asked what he felt about the future of jazz.

“The future of any kind of music is what is within every individual’s dreams and goals. We all create the future. You have to know something to cause something to happen. My wish for the future is for jazz to go on because it is an intimate reflection of all that is going on in the world. Musicians have a mission to elevate the spirits of people. That is how I want to see the world.”

Recording Academy president Neil Portnow was joined onstage by Jennifer Hudson and OneRepublic singer-producer Ryan Tedder to speak about the need for protecting songwriters’ rights and copyrights. He announced the historic Grammy Creators Alliance, created to increase remuneration for artists in this digital age where many people, as Rosanne Cash said, steal songs every day with no thought of the songwriters getting robbed.

“What if we’re all watching the Grammys a few years from now and there’s no Best New Artist award because there aren’t enough talented artists and songwriters who are actually able to make a living from their craft?” he asked.

“Music has tremendous value in our lives,” he continued. “While ways of listening to music evolve, we must remember that music matters in our lives, and that new technology must pay artists fairly.”

Asked backstage why NARAS has waited until now to use their clout to protect songwriters and artists, he said, “We haven’t waited until now. We have been working on this issue for ten years.”

Asked about Prince’s statement that “records still matter,” he said, “Prince has his own point of view. He’s an artist. I am always interested in what Prince has to say.”

I asked him about the impact of a Grammy on the career of a musician.

“Statistically we’ve seen we are the top motivators of people around the world. Whether you are a winner or a nominee, this is historically the most significant award in terms of building a career. We are not only in America; we are in 190 different countries.”