"It really is all about the music and the positivity that it brings," GRAMMY-winning audio engineer Leslie Ann Jones said during the introductory remarks of the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing GRAMMY Week event held last Wednesday evening at the Village Studios in Los Angeles.
The mood was particularly buoyant at the 15th annual event. After all, noted Mistress of Ceremonies and P&E Wing Vice President Maureen Droney, this was the first time that it was held in person since 2020, and the hundreds of attendees warmed up for the awards ceremony by socializing and sampling specialty cocktails. The hallways and reception areas of the legendary recording studio, host to an astonishing collection of famous artists, provided an evocative backdrop.
At the atmospheric Moroccan Ballroom, 13-time GRAMMY winner Judith Sherman was honored for her extraordinary contribution to the art of recording classical music. "I'm the luckiest woman in the world," she enthused during a video highlighting her collaborations with artists like Rudolf Serkin, Ursula Oppens and the Kronos Quartet.
Invited onstage by Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, Sherman was particularly self-deprecating in her acceptance speech.
"When I got the call about this honor, I thought it was a hoax," she said, eliciting chuckles from the audience. "I'd like to thank the composers and musicians, who are the point of all this," she added. "I always tell people that I have the best job in the world. I get to know music intimately, but I never have to practice. I'm honored to be honored by such a group of artists."
Sherman then introduced the Kronos Quartet, the ensemble with which she recorded some legendary sessions. Visibly happy to honor their friend with live music, the members of the Quartet launched into an exuberant rendition of Mexican composer Severiano Briseño's "El Sinaloense," from the 2002 album Nuevo – co-produced by Sherman.
The background lights then turned a deep, moody blue for a delicate reading of the mournful "Closing" by Philip Glass, from his timeless 1985 soundtrack for the movie Mishima. As the strings lost themselves in the repetitive melodic patterns — the trademark building blocks of Glass' minimalism, it was impossible not to ponder the power of music to transport listeners into soundscapes of an almost surreal beauty.
Across the hallway, inside the studio's spacious auditorium, Mason jr. introduced three-time GRAMMY-winning drummer, producer and educator Terri Lyne Carrington as "a world changer, an advocate who gives back to the people during so much of the year." A drummer of remarkable verve and technical skill, Carrington has toured and recorded with a long list of iconic artists, including Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter.
"This is surreal," Carrington said upon receiving the award. She then recalled becoming a Recording Academy member in 1989, while she was the house drummer with The Arsenio Hall Show in Los Angeles. "I don't remember a lot about 1989," she quipped, "but I do recall being invited to join, and realizing that a lot of people in this community are interested in being of service."
Carrington also made a case for genre diversity, praising the Academy for honoring artists in the fields of jazz and classical music. "That is a big deal," she emphasized, generating a round of applause. "Fighting for social and racial justice is enough. Fighting for jazz as well…It’s tiring."
She then invited the members of her progressive jazz combo Social Science onstage, explaining that some of them had flown from New York, Boston and Washington DC just to play at the event. "I've been pacing and walking around," she said, adding that she's been performing only of couple of dates per month, and asking fellow musicians to be forgiving of her chops.
Carrington had nothing to fear, of course. The extended mini-concert was nothing short of revelatory, combining jazz harmony with fiery polyrhythms, passionate hip-hop, intriguing echoes of psychedelia in the spiraling Hammond lines of keyboardist Aaron Parks, and some outstanding bass work by Morgan Guerin, who also performed an impressive sax solo.
Carrington's gutsy drumming was the focal point, together with the soaring vocalizing of virtuoso singer Debo Ray. Social Science's 2019 double album Waiting Game is the kind of visionary work that can single-handedly move a genre forward. We can only hope that the ensemble will reconvene and record new music in the near future.
As is often the case with the GRAMMY week events, the awards and acceptance speeches were memorable enough. But just on its own, the music brimmed with profound inspiration.