GRAMMY Picks!

One of the bright lights amidst those long dark nights of January is the kick-off of the entertainment awards season. The nominee lists, the red carpet glam and the acceptance speeches - whether punchy, poignant or political, no doubt they’re setting your socials alight. Here at Maine Public Classical, naturally, we’re always curious to dive into what’s in store for the annual GRAMMY AWARDS in particular.

The 68^th edition of the GRAMMYS is just around the corner, on February 1. With a whopping ninety-five award categories in play this year, including new ones you may not have even heard of, such as Best Album Cover, there’s an enormous sea of music to explore. To guide you in your voyage through these vast musical waters, two of our hosts, Emily Duncan Wilson and Rich Tozier, share their favorites among this year’s nominees. Classical and jazz picks, of course, and smidge more (hint, check out the honorable mention below!). Read on!

Emily Duncan Wilson’s Picks

There’s a theme that runs throughout my selections from this year’s classical GRAMMY nominations – they're all some sort of blend of classical with some other genre or tradition. That is what is so exciting about contemporary classical compositions and new recordings of older favorites – it's a great chance to see where the genre of traditionally “classical” music is headed, and how the genre only gains strength from the folk, vernacular and fellow artistic disciplines it collaborates with.

SLAVIC SESSIONS
Nominee for Chamber Music Performance | Mak Grgić & Mateusz Kowalski

As a lover of the interweaving of folk traditions with any genre of music, guitar virtuosos Mak Grgić and Mateusz Kowalski’s folk-inspired SLAVIC SESSIONS pulled my attention. The album spans 300 years of Slavic folk and classical music, with newly inspired renditions of Chopin and Dvořák, as well as traditional Polish and Balkan folk melodies reimagined for classical guitar.

The full album is great winter listening – allow yourself to get cozied up, imagine woodlands and folktales, and immerse yourself in the music of these two incredible musicians.

But if you’re not sure where to start, might I suggest the poetic meditation on Chopin’s Nocturne in B-flat minor Op. 9 No. 1 or Marek Pasieczny’s cycle Polish Impressions – a collection of twelve miniatures founded upon the most recognizable Polish folk melodies. One of my favorites is “In My Little Garden”.

STANDARD STOPPAGES
Nominee for Chamber Music Performance | Third Coast Percussion

Another nominee in the “Best Chamber Music” category is also cross-nominated in the “Best Engineered Album, Classical” category for the work of producer and mix engineer Judith Sherman and Colin Cambell, on Third Coast Percussion’s 20^th anniversary album STANDARD STOPPAGES. And you can understand why when you listen... The album is sonically rich, texturally interesting, and pushes expectations of a classical percussion album.
The ensemble commemorates this milestone with new commissions and collaborations, invigorating the album with Zakir Hussain’s Hindustani classical tradition, electronic musician Jlin, Jessie Montgomery’s interweaving of Western classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, and social consciousness, and more.
My favorites?

STILL & BONDS - SYMPHONIES & VARIATIONS
Nominee for Best Orchestral Performance | Philadelphia Orchestra & Yannick Nézet-Séguin

In addition to new compositions, I was also immediately drawn to a new recording by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. It’s an album featuring William Grant Still’s second and fourth symphonies, as well as Margaret Bond’s Montgomery Variations. It’s lush, illuminating, and is also a nod to the history of the ensemble. The Philadelphia Orchestra premiered William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 2, “Song of a New Race” in 1937, but then didn’t perform it again for another ninety years. The second movement, Slowly, with deep expression, brings back that theme of blending genres as it opens with variations on the Jerome Kern standard “The Way You Look Tonight”, and it’s just lovely.

Bonds’ Montgomery Variations tells a story and takes a stand. It was composed as a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., after her visit to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1963. In the piece, she takes the spiritual “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me,” a song that gives voice to the perseverance of Black demonstrators who organized boycotts and led protests and reimagines it in an orchestral context. She never heard the full piece performed during her lifetime.
You hear this spiritual in the first movement, Decision, which musically depicts MLK Jr.’s leadership in deciding to boycott the bus company and to fight for their rights as citizens.

HONORABLE MENTION: TESORI: GROUNDED (LIVE)
Nominee for Best Opera Recording | The Metropolitan Opera & Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Given my own background as in sound design, I have a personal connection to this last pick, in that the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Janine Tesori’s Grounded is one of the rare Met operas to include a sound designer in the creative team. (In most operas, the conductor and the acoustics of the hall function as what would be the “sound designer.”)
Grounded’s production credits include the first female sound designer to ever work at the Met, Tony Award nominee, friend, and design colleague of mine, Palmer Hefferan.

Tesori herself is also only the second woman to have a work commissioned by the Met, which is both a shame, and a joy.

You can learn more about this ~ground~ breaking opera, with this look at the story and how its presented on the stage.

- Emily Duncan Wilson

Rich Tozier’s Picks

The Grammys offer six jazz categories for the much-coveted Awards, comprising a total of thirty-one contenders. I must 'fess that I have heard only a small portion of the jazz entries but have had the good fortune — and pleasure — of experiencing a few. After settling on which nominees to cherry-pick for this Winter Issue of Encore, I was surprised to see that all of my choices concerned vocalists, although only one category specifically represented "best" jazz vocals.

PORTRAIT
Nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album | Samara Joy

Topping my choices was Samara Joy's PORTRAIT, a contender for Best Jazz Vocal Album. It includes the single "Peace of Mind/Dreams Come True," a medley which was cited as a "Best Jazz Performance." Joy has, in my humble opinion, some of the greatest chops going among today's crop of jazz singers. I have no doubt she could tackle opera or any other category, you name it. She is not only a gloriously gifted vocalist, but also a courageous lyricist. Whoever woulda thunk of putting words to Charles Mingus's semi obscure "Reincarnation of a Lovebird"? When I first heard Joy's take, I HAD to air both her version and the Mingus original on Jazz Tonight. Frankly, were I on the Grammy committee I would have picked her "Reincarnation" over "Peace of Mind/Dreams Come True," although the latter reveals its riches with closer, focused listens, as do the other tracks on this superb album.

LIVE AT VIC’S IN LAS VEGAS
Nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album | Nicole Zuraitis

Another candidate for both Best Jazz Performance and Best Jazz Vocal Album is Nicole Zuraitis for, respectively, "All Stars Lead to You" and LIVE AT VIC'S IN LAS VEGAS. Although she's no newcomer, she's new to me, to my great chagrin. (Where have I been?) Be that as it may, I was knocked out when I first heard LIVE. "All Stars," the single, certainly deserves its kudos, but her emotive take on Dolly Parton's "Jolene" would have been my pick. I hope Ms. Parton has heard it and approves. Zuraitis is not as well known as Samara Joy by a long shot, but by merely being nominated for an esteemed GRAMMY she will at least gain the wider recognition she so richly deserves.

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, VOL. 1
Nominee for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album | Christian McBride

Christian McBride's nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album is WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, VOL. 1. It's so good that it leaves me impatient for VOL. 2. If it's up to its Volume 1's level, it'll have been well worth the wait, but for now that's another story. This first volume has eight tracks, all but one with a featured vocalist. McBride himself is a prolific, terrific bassist, composer and bandleader who seems to be everywhere. He also hosts NPR's Jazz Night in America, which airs Friday evenings at 10 on Maine Public Classical. I've no doubt he wears many other hats of which I'm unaware. I regard him as a Renaissance Man. This initial ADO features some well-known singers (Cecile McLorin Salvant, Dianne Reeves, Sting and the aforementioned Samara) and some stalwart lesser-knowns, such as Jose James and Antoinette Henry.

- Rich Tozier

Tune in to The Midday Mix with Emily (Mon-Fri 10:00 am -2:00 pm) and Jazz Tonight with Rich (Fri 8:00-10:00 pm) the last week of January as they’ll be spinning the tunes above in those days leading up to GRAMMY night on Sunday, February 1.