The Grammy Awards have announced what could be a significant change in the Pop Instrumental Album Category. They’ve reconstituted it as the Contemporary Instrumental Album. The ramifications could be interesting since “contemporary instrumental” is a much more generic designation that could bring in all kinds of music that isn’t rock, pop, jazz or folk, potentially…
New Age Music reasserts its hold on the Grammy’s New Age Category. I won’t be able to get my chakras in an uproar about the absurdity of the New Age Grammy category this year. (See previous rants & reflections Grammys Goof Again in the New Age) There aren’t any hack New Agers that no one…
TUNE IN TO ECHOES AT THE GRAMMYS TONIGHT Tune into Echoes tonight for the Grammy Awards you wish you could see on TV. This Sunday, February 13 the 53rd Grammy Awards take place. Another year, another set of Grammy Awards. Many of us become inured to these awards which purport to honor the best and…
WHO IS HENTA AND HOW DID SHE GET NOMINATED FOR A GRAMMY? Every year, the Recording Academy has at least one WTF moment and this year it’s again in the New Age category. Last year Jack DeJohnette inexplicably won for Peace Time, which in a post-Grammy blog I called “a generic New Age album that…
I skipped watching the Grammys Sunday night to catch a live performance by Jon Hassell that took a deep diving expedition guided by fourth world semaphores and jazz signposts. (See earlier blog.) But after I got home, as I booted up my DVR to catch the awards show, I opened an email from Will Ackerman…
The 51st Annual Grammy will be broadcast this Sunday, February 8 and as usual, don’t expect to see any Echoes artists on it. Not that there aren’t some cool artists nominated in major categories, among them Coldplay, Radiohead, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and Beck. But you’ll find Echoes artists turning up in unusual categories…