Latin Jazz & the Academy: A Brief History

Jessie Jackson, Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea are among those who have publicly raised their voices against the slashing of 31 categories from the 54^th Grammy awards, leaving much diversity in the dust. But if you’re hearing about these petitions and picket lines at all, it’s largely due to the efforts of the Latin Jazz community, who have been among the most vocal and persistent protestors. In my first essay on the Grammy restructuring, I discussed its overall impact on gender and ethnic/regional diversity. Today, we’ll examine the special case of Latin Jazz’s history at the Grammys, and how it relates to Latin Jazz artists leading the charge for full restitution of the 31 categories.

When the elimination of the Latin Jazz category was first announced last April, the outcry among the affected musicians was immediate and far-reaching. While NARAS President/CEO Neil Portnow rushed to emergency meetings with membership on both coasts to explain the changes, a petition started by San Francisco-based concert producer Stephanie Dalton quickly generated over six thousand signatures from concerned artists, educators, journalists, fans, and arts management professionals.

As talks with NARAS brass seemed to be going nowhere, four Latin Jazz musicians—Bobby Sanabria, Benjamin Lapidus, Mark Levine, and Eugene Marlow—banded together in August to file a class action lawsuit, which is still pending. Meanwhile, Sandy Cressman, a former Governor of NARAS’ San Francisco chapter, contributes to the website GrammyWatch.org, which posts news developments and editorials from such well-known advocates as percussionist/bandleader John Santos.

So, why is this such a big deal in the Latin Jazz community? The fact that it is a community, with strong, historic roots firmly planted in several regions of the United States, is part of it. Latin Jazz—la música—is an ancestral music that allows for constant self-reinvention. It is modern and folkloric at the same time, drawing extraordinary pleasure and power from a history of migration and disenfranchisement. It preserves secrets, but at the same time, like all great music, speaks universally to the human spirit. Simply put, Latin Jazz is important and deserves a permanent home in any record-keeping of American music history.

To further get into the picture, let’s look at the history of Latin Jazz artists getting recognized at the Grammys. Latin Jazz didn’t become a named category until 1994, but NARAS’ history of recognizing Latin Jazz artists dates back to 1975, when the Best Latin Album category was introduced. Although it was a catch-all category, it was pioneered and dominated by Latin Jazz artists, most notably the pianist and bandleader Eddie Palmieri, who took home the first-ever Grammy for Best Latin Album for The Sun of Latin Music in 1975.

In a Feb. 2011 phone interview, Palmieri and I chatted about his critical role in the establishment of the Latin Jazz category as though it were a cemented part of his musical legacy, unaware that the Academy was about to deliver a sucker punch just two months later:

Eddie Palmieri: The Sun of Latin Music won the first [Best Latin Album] Grammy…It was the first year they put us in a category. One Grammy for all the Latin artists in the world and for all the Latin music genres in the world.

Sylvia Pfeiffenberger: You had to accept a lot on your shoulders there.

EP: Yeah that was something. And I accepted it also in honor of Tito Rodriguez, who had passed two years earlier. Imagine if the Grammys would have been in their time [i.e. the Mambo Kings], they would have had so many of them. Just like my brother Charlie Palmieri. And Tito Puente, even though Tito Puente was able to accumulate Grammys later—but imagine if there would have been a Grammy in the early ’50s, that’s what I mean.

SP: Do you think we’ve come a long way in recognizing those achievements now?

EP: We were instrumental in getting the Latin Jazz category in NARAS, because I knew that we needed it. If we recorded a composition, they were putting it in the Jazz category which was an honor. But that was a problem, because if you’re playing piano, and you’re going to go against Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner…no Latin player would have ever really won a Grammy…But the main thing is that we have our own category. I performed for the host committee of NARAS; I was a Governor at that time. And they saw the importance.

SP: So you were personally instrumental…

EP: If it wouldn’t have been for me, I would say, the Latin Jazz category—it was going to take longer to establish it, for sure…

To make that perfectly clear: the first Latin Grammy in 1975 only materialized through the internal lobbying efforts of the Academy’s Latin Jazz artists. They were there first, demanding it. Like Elegua, god of the crossroads in Afro-Cuban mythology, they opened up the path that, between 1975 and 1994, led Latin Jazz artists through several category migrations. These fall into roughly three time periods, which are easiest to track via the various honors bestowed upon perennial Grammy winners whose music belongs to the Latin Jazz genre, such as Tito Puente, Palmieri, and Arturo Sandoval.

From 1975 to 1982, the Latin award winners included Palmieri, Puente, Machito, Mongo Santamaria, Irakere, Cal Tjader, and Clare Fischer. It was the only existing Latin category at the time, and while it was nominally open to any genre, we see that Latin Jazz artists predominate. From 1983 to 1993, the generic Latin category disappears altogether, and in its place a Latin Field opens up, comprised of three categories: Latin Pop, Mexican-American, and Tropical Latin. Latin Jazz artists such as Palmieri and Puente enter and consistently win the Tropical category, along with salsa artists like Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, and Ruben Blades.

In the early ‘90s, Latin Jazz artists begin to lose traction in the Tropical category, which trends toward dancefloor rhythms and pop. In 1994, Latin Jazz artists migrate a second time, this time to their own official category in the Jazz Field. The Latin Jazz Grammy honors the likes of Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D’Rivera (both won in Latin in 1979 as members of Irakere), as well as Puente and Palmieri (both winners of Latin and Tropical Grammys—they even tied for the latter in 1985).

From a period of 1994 to 2010, the Latin Jazz Grammy continued to recognize great performances by Poncho Sanchez, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Dave Valentin, Arturo O’Farrill, Chucho Valdes and Bebo Valdes among others. Jobim was one of the first winners of the category (although his song, “The Girl From Ipanema” performed by Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz, had won Record and Album of the Year back in 1964). Jobim’s 1995 Latin Jazz Grammy for the posthumously released Antonio Brasileiro was his only official Grammy win.

So, why is this migratory pattern significant?

First, it demonstrates continuity. The Latin Jazz category didn’t just pop up out of nowhere in 1994, but in fact arose as a response to artists who were winning Grammys, and fighting for full recognition of Latin Jazz, over the course of several decades. By looking across categories at whom the Academy has honored, the quality and coherence of the musical tradition is more than apparent. It’s time to put an end to the category shell game and accord Latin Jazz the home it deserves.

Second, Latin Jazz artists showed their commitment to the Academy and worked diligently from within to achieve these institutional changes. This is why seeing the category deleted suddenly, without any warning or consultation, has been an especially painful experience for those Latin Jazz elders who have literally invested their life’s work in achieving that recognition. Not just for themselves, but for all those who came before—and who will come after.

As Eddie Palmieri notes, the founding generation of Latin Jazz legends went largely unrecognized by the Academy, as by most mainstream American institutions. The Latin Jazz community is not about to let that happen again to its current masters, or its next generation of artists. Don’t expect these warriors to give up easily. As John Santos wrote in an open letter posted February 18, 2012, on GrammyWatch.org, “Know that everything works out in the end. If it hasn’t worked out, it’s not the end.”

***

Sylvia Pfeiffenberger discusses “Restoring Diversity” to the Grammys with GrammyWatch’s Sandy Cressman and Stephanie Dalton, two-time Grammy winner Oscar Hernandez, and Dr. Benjamin Lapidus (one of the four plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit brought against NARAS by Latin Jazz musicians) on Solutions Now! Radio at 7 p.m. EST today, March 6. You can tune in online at 7 p.m. EST, and call in with your own thoughts at (347) 887-8042.

UPDATE: LISTEN TO THE PODCAST