# Excellence assumes many forms, for the 2020 Grammy nominees in Jazz and Blues: Photos, Videos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2019/11/20/excellence-assumes-many-forms-for-the-2020-grammy-nominees-in-jazz-and-blues-photos-videos/
- Published: 2019-11-20T21:17:50+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Christian McBride, Esperanza Spalding and Branford Marsalis are among the jazz
and blues artists in the running for the 62nd Grammy Awards. **

The Recording Academy announced its nominations on Wednesday morning. The Grammys
will be held on Jan. 26, and broadcast on CBS.

This year’s nominees reflect a range of personalities and styles, within a mainstream
purview. McBride, the bassist and bandleader also known as host of Jazz Night in
America, has the most nominations, with three. His tune “Walkin’ Funny” is up for
Best Instrumental Composition, and he got a nod for Best Improvised Jazz Solo, for
a bass solo on Wayne Shorter’s “Sightseeing.”

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Those tracks come from _Christian McBride’s New Jawn, _which can also be found in
the category for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. The other nominees in that category
are Marsalis (_The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul_), organist Joey DeFrancesco(
_In the Key of the Universe_), pianist Brad Mehldau (_Finding Gabriel_) and saxophonist
Joshua Redman (_Come What May_).

Spalding is up for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals, for “Thoracic Spine”
off _12 Little Spells. _She can also be found in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category,
alongside esteemed veterans Catherine Russell and Tierney Sutton and ascendant newer
arrivals Sara Gazarek and Jazzmeia Horn.

A similar intergenerational quality presides in the other categories. The nominees
for Best Improvised Jazz Solo include McBride, who is 47; Marsalis, 59; and trumpeter
Randy Brecker, 73. But also in that category are tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana
and guitarist Julian Lage, who are both in their early 30s, and released their debut
albums roughly a decade ago.

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Likewise, the nominees for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album include Mike Holober &
The Gotham Jazz Orchestra, for _Hiding Out_, and the Brian Lynch Big Band, for _The
Omni-American Book Club_ — two groups led by seasoned hands. Their fellow nominees
include three newer arrivals: Miho Hazama, for _Dancer in Nowhere_; Terraza Big 
Band, for _One Day Wonder_; and the Anat Cohen Tentet, for _Triple Helix._

Pianist and NEA Jazz Master Chick Corea, a Grammy favorite with 22 past wins, has
a nomination in the Best Latin Jazz Album category, for _Antidote, _featuring his
Spanish Heart Band. Among the other contenders in that category are Puerto Rican
alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, for _Sonero: The Music of Ismael Rivera_; Puerto 
Rican tenor saxophonist David Sánchez, for _Carib; _Brazilian singer Thalma de Freitas
for _Sorte! Music by John Finbery_; and the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra With
Wynton Marsalis & Rubén Blades, for _Un Noche con Rubén Blades._

Wynton Marsalis also has a nomination in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition
category, for his “Violin Concerto in D Major,” featuring Nicola Benedetti, Cristian
Măcelaru and the Philadelphia Orchestra. As usual, jazz artists are well represented
elsewhere outside their designated field — especially in the composing and arranging
categories, which include not only Spalding and McBride but also pianists Fred Hersch,
Geoff Keezer and Kris Bowers.

[[

And the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album category has become a familiar harbor
for format-stretching jazz musicians. The nominees this year include _Ancestral 
Recall, _by trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah; _Star People Nation_, by trumpeter
Theo Croker; and _Beat Music! Beat Music! Beat Music! _by drummer Mark Guiliana.(
Their competition: the jam-band Lettuce and Mexican acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo 
y Gabriela.)

In the Blues categories, seasoned elders like Bobby Rush share nominee honors with
the ascendant new artist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. (Both of those artists recently
paid a visit to Blues Break with Michael Bourne.) Rush and Ingram are nominated 
in Best Traditional Blues Album, alongside Delbert McClinton, Jontavious Willis 
and Jimmie Vaughan.

![Christian McBride and Esperanza Spalding in New York on Dec. 4, 2017.](https://
i0.wp.com/www.wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/x_large/public/201911/mcbride_and_spalding.
png?w=640&ssl=1)

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