Home » Jazz News » Award / Grant

53

Letters to NARAS: Jochem Becker Writes About the Latin Jazz Grammy

Source:

Sign in to view read count
On Wednesday April 6th, The National Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences announced a “restructuring" of The Grammy Awards, a move that included the elimination of the Latin Jazz Grammy. This unfortunate decision undermines the integrity of Latin Jazz and disregards its importance as a major piece of the cultural landscape in the United States. I would encourage all LJC readers to protest this decision and demand that NARAS reinstate the Latin Jazz Grammy immediately—you can do this by sending an e-mail to NARAS President and CEO Neil Portnow here—[email protected] Get additional information and updates on LJC's Support Page For The Latin Jazz Grammy.

The “restructuring" of the Grammy Awards certainly favored the major labels and undermined the work of independent record labels. Jochem Becker's label, Zoho, has released some of New York's finest Latin Jazz in the past several years; as a result, the Grammy changes will seriously impact them. In his letter to NARAS, Becker speaks about these changes.


Dear Neil:

I was present, and spoke “on the microphone" at the NARAS meeting in Manhattan yesterday evening. Let me urge you again to re-consider the NARAS decision to eliminate the LATIN JAZZ category—for the following reasons :

1. We as NARAS members were never consulted about these category consolidation plans. These consolidations are quite unnecessary, and needlessly require that Latin Jazz, a distinct art form, gets lumped together in a generic jazz category with only remotely related genres such as smooth jazz. You said at the meeting that this decision was made between committees and Boards of Trustees of the organization. In my opinion, a decision of this vast consequence needs to be openly discussed with NARAS members (which I am) BEFORE it is made, not afterwards.

2. Latin Jazz is one of the several now-eliminated categories which had “leveled the playing field" for musicians against the dominance of the major labels —which did not get as much of a “hair cut" during the GRAMMY category consolidations. Previously, Latin Jazz artists were able to compete with major label releases if not in total sales, but at least in artistic excellence.

3. Latin Jazz, plus the other Latin categories where there were consolidations, represent the pride and provide self esteem for the largest, fastest rising ethnic “minority “ population in the US. As the great Eddie Palmieri pointed out at the New York NARAS meeting yesterday, he and others had fought long and hard since the 1970s to get Latin Jazz recognized as its own category worthy of representation at the GRAMMYs. It was painful for him to see that after all the struggle which finally led to “victory" many years ago, that the Latin Jazz category was now again eliminated. As was expressed by several speakers at the NARAS meeting, the uncalled-for GRAMMY category cutbacks are viewed by many as an insult, and a slap in the face.

4. The entire NARAS effort of eliminating 30% of the present categories is misguided. A strong argument can be made to increase, not eliminate, the number of categories—for example in creating a wider range of “Best New Artist" categories within the fields of say, Jazz, Classical, Latin, etc.

Many thanks!

Jochen Becker

Don't let this attack on Latin Jazz go unnoticed—send your e-mail in support of the Latin Jazz Grammy today. You can start with a message to NARAS President and CEO Neil Portnow, his e-mail address is: [email protected] Make sure that you sign the petition to get the Latin Jazz Grammy reinstated—you can find it HERE.

Continue Reading...

Comments

Tags

News

Popular

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.