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Berklee's Grammy Connection
By President Lee Eliot Berk
(March 1, 2000)
Now that the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards are in the books, we want to take this time, as we do each year, to pause and honor the achievement of some of Berklee's best.
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President Lee Eliot Berk |
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First and foremost, please join me in extending congratulations and best wishes to Executive Vice President Gary Burton for his fifth Grammy in five decades. This level of enduring quality at the highest levels of music artistry is extremely rare, and rarer still is the breadth of Gary's talents which have contributed so much to the college over the years.
I want to make certain all of us are aware of the wonderful showing that Berklee alumni and good friends of the college made this year. As you know, the Grammy Awards, presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, is the pinnacle of peer recognition in the recording industry, signifying tremendous artistic success. Berklee alumni garnered 19 nominations this year, and five wins.
Fourteen Berklee alumni, staff, and faculty received Grammy nominations (an honor itself):
• Executive Vice President Gary Burton '62 (Honorary Doctorate in 1989) received nominations for both Best Jazz Instrumental Solo and Best Jazz Instrumental Performance for his all-star project "Like Minds," with Chick Corea, Roy Haynes, Dave Holland, and Pat Metheny.
• Alan Broadbent '69 was recognized with a nomination for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists for his work on "Lonely Town," featuring Shirley Horn, on the Charlie Haden Quartet West album, "Art of the Song."
• Melissa Etheridge '80 earned two nominations for her song "Angels Would Fall" in the Best Female Rock Vocal and Best Rock Song categories, and one for "Breakdown" in the Best Rock Album category.
• Juan Luis Guerra '83 was nominated for Best Latin Pop Performance for "Ni Es Lo Mismo Es Igual."
• Bruce Hornsby '74 received a nomination in the Best Pop Instrumental Performance category for "Song C."
• Alumnus Bob James received a nomination for "Joy Ride" in the Best Contemporary Jazz Performance category.
• Diana Krall '83 was nominated for Album of the Year (extremely rare for any jazz recording) and Best Jazz Vocal Performance for "When I Look in Your Eyes"
• Natalie Maines '95 of the Dixie Chicks received four nominations, including Album of the Year and Best Country Album for "Fly"; for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group, "Ready to Run;" and for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, "Roly Poly."
• Branford Marsalis '80 was nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, on "Requiem."
• Jorge Rossy '90 was nominated as a member of the Brad Mehldau Trio for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, on "Art of the Trio 4 - Back at the Vanguard."
• Tom Snow '69 was nominated for Best Musical Show Album for the Broadway show recording of "Footloose."
• Susan Tedeschi '91 got her first-ever nomination, appropriately, in the Best New Artist category.
• Steve Vai '79 was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance on "Windows to the Soul."
• Associate Professor of Keyboard Joanne Brackeen had a track nominated from her disc "Pink Elephant Magic" in the Best Jazz Instrumental Solo category, featuring the work of tenorman Chris Potter.
Honorary Doctorate of Music recipients and friends of the college who were nominated this year included Herb Alpert, Tony Bennett, Phil Collins, Chick Corea, Roy Haynes, B.B. King, Johnny Mandel, Pat Metheny, Tito Puente, Wayne Shorter, Sting, and John Williams.
We were also happy to note that Berklee trustee Don Rose's Rykodisc labels received nominations for bluesman Robert Cray's "Take Your Shoes Off" (Rykodisc) in the Best Contemporary Blues Recording category and, for West African guitarist Ali Farka Toure's "Niafunké" (Hannibal) in the Best World Music Recording category.
And the (Berklee) Grammy Winners are:
• Gary Burton for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance
• Alan Broadbent for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists
• Diana Krall for Best Jazz Vocal Performance (her album also won in the Best Engineered category)
• Natalie Maines and the Dixie Chicks for both Best Country Album and Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
Associate Professor of Percussion Jamey Haddad played on the Paul Winter and Friends project, "Celtic Solstice," which won in the Best New Age Album category. Trustee Don Rose's Rykodisc label artist Robert Cray won in the Contemporary Blues Album category.
Recipients of the college's Honorary Doctorate of Music who went home with Grammys this year included Tony Bennett, for Traditional Pop Vocal Performance; Phil Collins, for Best Soundtrack Album; Chick Corea, Roy Haynes, and Pat Metheny for Best Jazz Instrumental performance (on "Like Minds," with Gary Burton); B.B. King, for Best Traditional Blues Album; Tito Puente, for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Performance; Wayne Shorter, for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo; and Sting, for Best Pop Album, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. We also extend our congratulations to college friend and Boston Globe columnist Bob Blumenthal for his win in the Best Album Liner Notes category.
And the Oscar Goes to . . .
Two members of the Berklee community were involved in Oscar-Award-nominated recordings. "Save Me," a tune written by 1980 alumna Aimee Mann for the soundtrack to "Magnolia", was nominated for Best Original Song. Alumna and newly appointed Film Scoring Department faculty member Mattias Gohl was the music producer of the score for "The Red Violin," which won the Oscar for Best Original Score.
Our congratulations go out to all the nominees and winners; we're very proud of your work!.
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