I'M NOT MAD AT ESPERANZA SPALDING!

Over the weekend, music exec Steve Stoute bought a full page ad in the New York Times to post an open letter to Neil Portnow, NARAS and The Grammys. You can read it at The Huffington Post. Stoute is a hip-hop guy, and cites some embarrassing Album of The Year gaffes, including 2001 when Steely Dan beat out Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP and 2008 when Herbie Hancock's Joni Mitchell tribute album beat out Kanye West's Graduation. Clearly he thought that Eminem's Recovery should have won this year, and it was beaten out by Arcade Fire's The Suburbs.

In 2001, I was not yet a NARAS member, but I remember being embarrassed anyway. Steely Dan's Two Against Nature was a surprising nomination to say the least, there was some excitement around the album as it was the group's first in 20 years or something. But I bet if you go to a Steely Dan concert today, their fans aren't calling out for songs from that album. Paul Simon's You're The One was also nominated. That was a really boring album, but I remember thinking that they would split the boomer vote. Also nominated was Beck's Midnite Vultures and Radiohead's Kid A. I figured those would split the white hipster vote and Eminem would win. I don't know how that didn't happen, but it certainly was an upset, and I have to think it was an embarrassment.

But not was bad as 2008. I doubt many people even knew that Herbie Hancock had released The Joni Letters. I don't really care about sales, but the record didn't feel like something that was important, and even jazz fans that I know didn't like it.  They felt that the "victory" was actually bad for jazz - the fact that people would be getting the album would ultimately be a turn-off to jazz neophytes, because the album wasn't that interesting. It beat out The Foo Fighters' Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace (a solid record, but not an Album of the Year type album), Vince Gill's quadruple album These Days (a bit too niche) and, shockingly, Amy Winehouse's Back To Black. I could see Kanye and Amy canceling each other out, but I don't see how Herbie beat the Foo Fighters or Vince Gill. A real gaffe.

This year, Arcade Fire beat Eminem, Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. Now, I voted for Eminem, but I'm not that upset about Arcade Fire. They sort of symbolize the mainstreaming of indie rock, and their album seemed pretty solid. Since Album of the Year was given out at the end of the night, and Arcade Fire was the last performer, Stoute felt it was a set up of some kind. Maybe the producers of the show knew who the winners were, and I agree it's cheap to schedule the show like that. But it's not that big of a deal.

Where I really (respectfully) part ways with the guy is when he makes the case that Justin Bieber should have been Artist of the Year over Esperanza Spalding. He says, "Justin Beiber, an artist that defines what it means to be a modern artist," and says "His cultural impact and success are even more quantifiable if you factor in his YouTube and Vevo viewership - the fact that he was a talent born entirely of the digital age and whose story was crafted in the humble method of being 'discovered' purely for his singing ability (and it should be noted that Justin Bieber plays piano and guitar, as evidenced on his early viral videos)."

I'll add that he also plays drums! There's no doubt in my mind that he's a talented kid. But none of those points make me feel like I should have voted for him as the Best New Artist. Sales are their own reward. So are views on YouTube and Vevo. I won't deny the kid's cultural impact. But I don't think that "biggest" = "best." Although I'm not an "anglophile" I was torn between Florence + The Machine and Mumford & Sons. Both artists have unique sounds, they ignore trends, and both were success stories with impressive sales in 2010. But I have no problem with Esperanza winning - she is also unique, clearly isn't motivated by commercial concerns, and is a good enough musician to have been an instructor at Berkley at age 20. Putting her in a category with Bieber (much less Drake and the other nominees) seems weird, but I have a hard time thinking that she somehow "robbed" Bieber. Agreeing to perform at the Grammys shouldn't be some kind of back-room deal that you are going to win anything, so I disagree with the point that Bieber was somehow "exploited" (the network decides what part of the ceremony they are going to advertise, and using Bieber to get viewers was a no-brainer). I submitted my ballot before I knew who was performing, and I think that was probably the case with most voters.

As Esperanza said in the press room, Justin will probably be fine, and if new people were exposed to her music, then I think the Grammys did us a service. Unless you think her album was bad (as opposed to just "irrelevant" based on sales), I don't see how anyone could have a problem with her victory. At any rate, her next album is going to be produced by Q-Tip, so hopefully people will be more open to hearing that one.

WHY FORGETTING GURU AT THE GRAMMYS WAS LAME

So, it's been a week since the Grammys.  There were some people who deserved to win who won, some big upsets, some great performances, some bad ones. But the thing I keep thinking about is the tribute to those who have passed away in the past year.  They forgot to mention Guru from Gang Starr, who died in April of 2010.

By the way, this isn't a post to complain about how the Grammys ignore hip-hop, I don't really think that that's the case anymore. Mainstream hip-hop stars like Jay-Z and Eminem got a lot of recognition at the Grammys this year (and probably split a lot of votes by being pitted in some categories against each other).

Guru is one of the greatest MCs of all time, but Gang Starr never really sold tons of records.   Maybe because their music was a bit too complex.  Maybe because they weren't doing whatever was commercial at the time.  Maybe because their record label didn't know how to market them.  Most likely it was a combination of all of the above, and other reasons too. Maybe this is why they forgot about him.

It's not just that Guru was a great MC, although he certainly was. Another important point is that he is exactly the type of artist who worked to bring traditional forms of music to younger audiences. In the Gang Starr song "Jazz Thing," he named dropped (or referred to) Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman, all while giving a brief history of jazz music. This is the type of thing NARAS normally loves younger musicians to do.

And Guru wasn't just giving lip service in a song, either.  In 1993, he started his Jazzamatazz series of solo records (he ultimately released four volumes), which brought jazz music to a younger audience.  They weren't gimmicky made-for-TV-award-show-collaborations.  They weren't contrived duets albums, dreamed up by marketing departments and booked based on who owed who a favor. These albums were true collaborations, based on love of jazz and mutual respect. Vol. 1 marked the first time (I think) that a hip-hop artist did an album backed by a jazz band.  Over the series, he collaborated with Branford Marsalis, Ronny Jordan, Courtney Pine, N'Dea Davenport (from The Brand New Heavies), Jamiroquai, Angie Stone, Macy Gray, The Roots, David Sanborn and Herbie Hancock, among others. It's hard to imagine that these collaborators were really based on commercial expectations. It was all artists who wanted to do what jazz does: to make music that goes somewhere new.  And maybe take jazz to a new audience. That's what NARAS should always do, particularly with genres like jazz, blues, "world music" and classical.  Keep it alive, keep it from being a museum piece. That's what Guru did. I'm not even focusing on his positive messages in songs like "Tonz O' Gunz," either, this post will go on forever. But suffice to say, this is a guy who should have been celebrated by the Academy during his lifetime.  It's too bad that they couldn't pay tribute to him, even in death.

Another interesting point is the controversy around the winner of Best New Artist: upright bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding. If she fits into any category, I guess it would be jazz. She seems like exactly the type of artist who Guru would have collaborated on Jazzamatazz V, if he were still alive to record another volume. And an interesting postscript to all of this is two tweets from Q-Tip (another hip-hop artist who really brought jazz music to the hip-hop audience) posted the night of the Grammys. One, asking people to complain to NARAS boss Neil Portnow about the exclusion of Guru from the memorial segment. And also this one: which said, "I happen 2 b producing esperanza's next Lp. She is a sweet talented woman I wish the haters wld be more careful w/ comments". If Guru were alive, I bet he'd echo the same sentiment.