On the Highest Stage

On the Highest Stage

LOUISIANA MUSICIANS RAKE IN NOMINATIONS FOR THE 64TH GRAMMY AWARDS

Alexandra Kennon

Louisiana’s distinct musical contributions resound around the world—and will be strongly represented yet again at the sixty-fourth annual Grammy Awards with over twenty nominations for Louisiana artists.

“I’m a true believer, and I see with my own eyes all the time that Louisiana is where all of American music really came from,” said New Orleans-based guitarist and vocalist Reid Wick, who has served as The Recording Academy’s membership and industry relations representative for the Gulf Coast region for more than fifteen years, and has been a voting member of the Recording Academy for longer. While Louisiana is most often associated with New Orleans jazz and the Cajun and Zydeco of Acadiana, its influence also stretches well into other genres. “Louisiana contributes every style of music to the world. And it’s reflected in our nominees…It covers the gamut from classical, to of course some of the regional roots, but gospel, and r&b, and hip-hop.”

NOCCA and St. Augustine alumni Jon Batiste raked in more nominations than any other musician with eleven, including a nomination for the highly sought-after Album of the Year award for his collaboratively-jam-packed WE ARE (which garnered eight nominations alone), and Record of the Year and Music Video of the Year for his single “Freedom”. Batiste also took nominations in multiple categories for his work on the score and soundtrack for the Disney/Pixar film Soul, as well as for Best R&B Album, Best Contemporary Classical Composition, Best American Roots Song, and more.

One of the most exciting categories for Louisiana music is Best Regional Roots Music Album. Of five total nominees, four are from Louisiana: Live in New Orleans! by Sean Ardoin and Kreole Rock And Soul; Bloodstains & Teardrops by Big Chief Monk Boudreaux; My People by Cha Wa; and Corey Ledet Zydeco’s self-titled album. This marks two acts representing Zydeco and Creole cultures, and two representing New Orleans’ Mardi Gras/Black Masking Indian culture on one of the grandest national stages for music.

Another category swept by Louisiana artists is Best Improvised Jazz Solo, with locals claiming three of five nominations. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s emotionally-charged trumpet solo on the track “Sackadougou” on Weedie Braimah’s album Hands of Time is one. Terance Blanchard also garnered a nomination in this category for his solo on the song “Absence” on his own album of the same title with The E Collective And The Turtle Island Quartet. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, Batiste had the third for his ethereal piano solo on the song “Bigger than Us” from the Soul soundtrack.

Louisiana’s nominations roll in despite substantial changes that were made to the nomination process for this year’s awards, primarily the abolishing of nominations reviews committees. The Grammys are the only national peer award for music, meaning that to qualify as a voting member of the Recording Academy one must have a certain number of recording credits and actively engage in that creative process as a performer, producer, songwriter, or engineer.

“It changes every year,” explained Wick. “We’ve had to adapt to things like streaming services and the way that we qualify our members—it used to be oldschool where you’d have vinyl records out. As technology has changed the industry, we have to find ways to change with it to make sure that we stay relevant in the whole process, because the Grammy really is the highest award in music.”

Previously, a smaller group of fifteen to thirty highly-qualified music professionals would review and vote to determine the final nominees for categories related to their particular genre of expertise. Now, the entire Recording Academy voting body will determine the nominees and winners. To back up the change, the Recording Academy ensured that a minimum of ninety percent of its voting body had gone through the requalification process to ensure that they were still actively engaged in creating music by the end of 2021.

“It’s really heartwarming to see that our music continues to be extremely relevant and important and of the highest quality and that we get so many nominations out of Louisiana every year,” said Wick. “I believe in the sixty-four years of Grammys, there have only been two out of the sixty-four years that we haven’t had at least one Louisiana artist nominated in the entire life of the Grammys. So those are all things that as Louisianians we can certainly be proud of.”

To see which Louisiana nominees will take home awards, tune into the 64th Annual Grammy Awards on April 3 at 7 pm.