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Flea Finds His Jazz Thing
In the relatively small pantheon of certifiable rock stars venturing into the intersection of pop music and jazz, the…
Tony Bennett (right) and the musicians on the Grammy-winning album The Silver Lining: Kenny Washington (left), Peter Washington, Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes
(Photo: Kelsey Bennett)Grammy voters love Tony Bennett. The singer won his 18th Grammy Award at the Recording Academy’s annual ceremony, held on Monday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Composer-arranger-big band leader Maria Schneider won her fourth and fifth Grammy statuettes.
Bennett took home Grammy gold in the category Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for his collaboration with pianist Bill Charlap, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern (RPM/Columbia). The other musicians on the album are drummer Kenny Washington, bassist Peter Washington and pianist Renee Rosnes.
Bennett won his first two Grammy Awards in 1962, when his signature song, “I Left My Heart In San Francisco,” topped the categories for Record of the Year and Best Solo Vocal Performance, Male.
Bennett then experienced a 30-year “drought” at the Grammy ceremony, not winning again until 1992’s Perfectly Frank was honored as Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance. From that point forward, Bennett became a favorite of Grammy voters, and he has made frequent trips to the winner’s podium ever since.
On Monday, Schneider topped the category Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for The Thompson Fields (ArtistShare), recorded by her namesake orchestra.
Schneider also won a Grammy in the category Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals for the version of “Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)” that appeared on singer David Bowie’s 2014 compilation Nothing Has Changed (Legacy/Columbia).
Singer-songwriter D’Angelo—whose album Black Messiah (RCA) topped the Beyond Album category in the 2015 DownBeat Readers Poll—was honored alongside his co-writer Kendra Foster in the category Best R&B Song, for the track “Really Love.” D’Angelo also took home a Grammy for Black Messiah, which was named Best R&B Album.
Hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar had a huge night, taking home trophies in five Grammy categories. His wins were for Best Rap Album, for To Pimp A Butterfly (Top Dawg Entertainment/Aftermath Records/Interscope Records); Best Rap Performance, for “Alright” from To Pimp A Butterfly; Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, for “These Walls,” a collaboration featuring Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat, from the same album; and Best Rap Song, a composer’s honor, for “Alright,” which he shares with his co-writers, Kawan Prather, Mark Anthony Spears and Pharrell Williams.
Additionally, Lamar took home a Grammy for Best Music Video because he was a featured artist in pop singer Taylor Swift’s video “Bad Blood.”
Elsewhere, husband-and-wife banjo players Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn won the Best Folk Album category for their self-titled album issued by Rounder.
Singer Rubén Blades won the Best Tropical Latin Album category for Son De Panamá, his collaboration with Roberto Delgado & Orchestra.
Vocalist Angelique Kidjo took home the Grammy for Best World Music Album for Sings (429 Records).
Singer Mavis Staples’ performance of “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean, from the album Your Good Fortune (Anti-), was named Best American Roots Performance.
To see a complete list of the winners, visit the Grammy website.
“Cerebral and academic thought is a different way to approach music,” Flea says of his continuing dive into jazz. “I’ve always relied on emotion and intuition and physicality.”
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