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 - neil@grammy.comGet additional information and updates on LJC’s Support Page For The Latin Jazz Grammy.
The elimination of the Latin Jazz Grammy immediately impacts the artists making the music today, but the greater ramification extend further into all reaches of the jazz community. As the media spotlight turns towards artists with Grammy recognition and opportunities become less available to a wealth of ignored Latin Jazz artists, they will appear far less familiar to the greater public.
A young generation of music listeners will grow up without an awareness of Latin Jazz artists, and even worse, they’ll never build an appreciation for the contributions of those artists. Music educators are tasked with the job of connecting the youth with musical traditions like Latin Jazz - a job that will be significantly more difficult with the elimination of Grammy recognition. In a poignant letter, Jazz Education Network president Dr. Lou Fischer discusses the issue from the perspective of jazz educators.
This letter is written on behalf of the Board of Directors of The Jazz Education Network (JEN). Our organization’s growing membership consists of an international community of more than 2,000 music educators, students, schools, composers, professional musicians, media professionals, publishers, manufactures and fans.
The JEN Board of Directors serves to fulfill our mission and the needs of our membership. This includes a commitment to serve, support, and represent the diverse spectrum of individuals and Jazz styles that our membership and the entire international jazz community represent.
Your recent decision to eliminate the Contemporary Jazz category and the Latin Jazz category from Grammy awards consideration will have a tremendous impact on the national and international music community, including many voting members of JEN and NARAS. We have received numerous responses and expressions of grave concern from our members & constituents voicing their extreme disappointment, disillusionment, and ultimately questioning the value of continued membership and participation in NARAS. The continued relevance of the Grammy Awards has been called into question as a result.
It is the collective opinion of the JEN Board of directors that eliminating these essential awards categories will profoundly and negatively impact the entire worldwide jazz community on many levels. Financial and social implications of this draconian proposal will extend to the fields of music education, performance opportunities, recording, music publishing, and instrument manufacturing.
Most importantly, this decision will have a profound sociological and cultural impact. The elimination of the Latin jazz category, as well as traditional blues, Native American, and similar categories reflecting the diverse cultural traditions of our country discriminates against all of these large communities as well as supports an unfortunate trend of homogenizing our society.
Many of these niche genres have recently lost critical exposure and financial support, due to increased consolidation in the commercial music market and are struggling to be heard and survive as art forms. This egregious proposal comes despite the fact that NARAS’ membership support continues to suggest the vitality of these essential awards categories. We vigorously assert that the elimination of these categories would be a grave mistake and a disservice to the NARAS mission as well as to our culture.
In the spirit of fulfilling our mission, we are submitting this letter to inform you that the JEN Board of Directors are in solidarity and support unanimously any and all efforts by our membership and the entire international music community’s efforts to encourage the NARAS Board of Trustees to reverse your recent decisions immediately. We urge you to recognize the scope of these dissenting voices and the potential damage this unfortunate decision will cause to your NARAS membership rolls and ultimate support of your efforts.
We thank you for your consideration of our collegial request that these Grammy awards categories (i.e. Latin Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Native American, et. al.) be reinstated immediately and we look forward to working with you to nurture music education, creativity, and diversity in the recording arts. As stated in your mission, please keep working towards “improving the quality of life and cultural conditions for music and its makers”.
Sincerely;
Dr. Lou Fischer
Jazz Education Network
President/Co-Founder
Dr. Lou Fischer
Jazz Education Network
President/Co-Founder
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