MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Switching gears now, most people probably know that the Grammy Awards is one of the most anticipated events in music every year, but what you might not know is that we actually see only a few of those shiny little gold gramophones awarded on the television program.
In fact, there were more than 100 different categories recognized last year, but the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the organization that hands out the Grammys, decided that that was too many, so they did some trimming.
More than 30 categories were eliminated or merged with other categories. For example, genres like Native American, Zydeco and Cajun music were merged into a new catch-all Best Regional Roots Music category, and that has upset many artists, even those who don't compete in those categories, and four artists affected by the change have even filed a lawsuit.
We wanted to hear more about this, so we've called upon Felix Contreras. He is a reporter at NPR's arts desk and the co-host of ALT.LATINO. That's the online program about Latin alternative music. And he's been covering this story for NPR, but we do want to let you know that Felix knows a couple of the litigants and he's actually performed with one of them.
So with that being said, Felix, thanks so much for joining us.
FELIX CONTRERAS, BYLINE: Thank you for having me.
MARTIN: So why are people so upset about this?
CONTRERAS: They're upset about the way the changes were made. Now, NARAS established a committee to make the changes and the lawsuit alleges that the committee operated in relative secrecy and the changes were made without consulting its members and it's a membership organization, so it was a violation of its own rules.
MARTIN: But what's the bigger issue? The bigger issue, the concern that these categories won't get as much attention if they don't have an individual category to recognize the work? Is it that the people who are doing the judging don't know enough about all these genres? Is that the bigger issue?
CONTRERAS: These are genres that are outside the mainstream. These are the genres that don't make a lot of money, don't sell a lot of records, but a lot of people feel that they represent, basically, the social fabric of this country - Zydeco, Cajun, Latin jazz, Hawaiian music, blues. They were affect - some blues categories were affected. Mexican regional categories were affected.
So there's a larger social issue involved with the complaint against the changes.
MARTIN: Well, give an example. Like Latin jazz, for example. Let's give an example of that. What happened in Latin jazz?
CONTRERAS: Latin jazz was established as a separate category in 1995, after decades of people trying to get this to happen. And what happened was that they eliminated that category and now the Latin jazz musicians compete against other jazz musicians in four jazz categories.
MARTIN: OK. You want to play a short clip from one of the nominations so people have an understanding of what we're talking about?
CONTRERAS: Sure. This is a cut from the nominated album, "Alma Adentro," by the Puerto Rican saxophonist Miguel Zenon. This track is called "Silencio."
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, "SILENCIO")
MARTIN: OK. But just listening to this, why wouldn't these artists feel that they can effectively compete in jazz overall?
CONTRERAS: This style of jazz can certainly compete within any number of the categories. This album features a big band, so it's within the large ensemble category, but there are other genres, other styles of Latin jazz that are more - for lack of a better word - you know, they play on the clave. They play ethnic music. There's Afro-Cuban styles, Puerto Rican styles. Some of these musicians don't feel like they can compete against maybe Herbie Hancock or Pat Metheny. Much better name, much more popular styles of jazz.
MARTIN: I understand that one of the most controversial changes is within the Best Regional Roots Music Album category. Can you talk a little bit about that?
CONTRERAS: Well, there used to be a separate Zydeco category, Hawaiian music, even polka had it's own category. And what they did was they combined them all into this catch-all category and critics of the changes wonder how Academy members can be expected to evaluate the differences in such a diverse group of genres and styles.
MARTIN: Well, let's hear from one of the nominated tracks from that category. This is the Rebirth Brass Band from their album called "Rebirth of New Orleans." This is called "The Dilemma."
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, "THE DILEMMA")
MARTIN: And so the argument is that something like this, which has a very kind of popular and accessible sound - you put that against something that perhaps is more ethnically specific or that is more difficult or less well known, like Hawaiian ethnic music or something like that and people say, it's never going to win.
CONTRERAS: It's like how do you judge. I mean, after all, you know, that's one of the complaints against the Grammys in general. It's like it's a competition when music isn't really a competition, some people feel. So then when you're judging that style of music against a Hawaiian slack key, a guitarist or maybe a Zydeco band or even a polka, a traditional polka with the accordions and all that, you know, it's just - some feel like it's - how do you compare the two and then choose a winner?
MARTIN: Now, what does the Academy have to say? As we said, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is the organization that gives these awards out. The president is Neil Portnow and you've talked with him. What does he say about this?
CONTRERAS: They have not ventured from their message of a need for change within the Grammys and insisting that all the musicians affected - they simply have to compete in other categories. No one is being excluded or denied a chance to be recognized.
And after they made the announcement last April, NARAS officials took a number of road trips to different cities to explain and defend the changes and in New York City they had a confrontational meeting with a lot of the Latin jazz musicians whose category was eliminated.
MARTIN: And how did that go? Where does it go from here? I understand that some of the musicians have organized a picket in front of the Staples Center Sunday evening before the Grammy broadcast this Sunday, but other than that - and we mentioned that there is a lawsuit - what is your sense of where things are going from here?
CONTRERAS: I've been told that there have been conversations going on between representatives who represent these categories and then - within the music industry and then NARAS officials, kind of back channel diplomacy that's been going on.
So it's anyone's guess, really, about what's going to happen, but when I interviewed Neil Portnow earlier this year when the controversy was just starting to brew, I got the sense that there would be room for change - to the changes. You know, they would reconsider. Like I said, it's anyone's guess, but I think that after this year's awards, that we may hear something, that there may be some changes.
MARTIN: But what about your argument that you made earlier? I've heard other artists say this before, that this is - art is not a competition and so therefore it really shouldn't matter, that it might be nice to be recognized in this way, but artists are saying that - you know, some artists don't even want to participate in this.
CONTRERAS: Right.
MARTIN: Because they feel that it just isn't appropriate to the endeavor that their - this kind of cultural work.
CONTRERAS: Sure. And that's a philosophical argument that's sort of separate from this controversy right now. What happens is, is like let's say you're a Latin jazz musician and, for example, there's a guy named John Santos, who's a band leader out of San Francisco in the Bay area. He's been a NARAS member for 25 years. He's volunteered his time for the music in the schools. He's paid his dues and he's upset that his category - he's been nominated, I think, four or five times - his category's now eliminated, and as a member of this organization, he feels a little disappointed and let down by the group after these changes.
MARTIN: OK. Finally, before we let you go, I hate to go pop on you, but there are for the popular categories that are more familiar to those of us as viewers, because we watch the program, you know, itself - so what's your prediction for Best Album of the Year, if you don't mind my putting you on the spot?
CONTRERAS: Every time I predict, I lose. I say this - I've got this long track record, although, you know...
MARTIN: Of being wrong?
CONTRERAS: Of being wrong, man. But I do got to say I really like Adele and I think that she brought - interestingly brought a breath of melody and soul to the music industry this year that I think was - people were lacking, which is why I think it was so...
MARTIN: Her album, "21" received many, many nominations. It's very widely played. Well, tell me, what do you like about it and what is it that you think people are responding to?
CONTRERAS: I think melody. You know, I think that just getting back to you - you know (unintelligible) what's interesting, I had a conversation with someone who was saying, oh, well, you know, this country doesn't really have a culture and all that. This is an instance of, you know, people from Britain - British musicians bringing our culture back because that's essentially a soul album.
And it could be - it comes from, you know, when I traveled through Memphis this summer, I was reminded just about how bluegrass, blues, gospel - it all combined to make soul music and here these musicians are bringing it back to us and it's so popular, you know...
MARTIN: OK.
CONTRERAS: There's something there.
MARTIN: OK. Well, I think if you haven't heard any cut from "21," then you probably don't have a radio and so we don't need to end on that. What do you want to end on? Take us out on something. What do you want to end on?
CONTRERAS: You know, there's an album nominated in Best Blues Album. It's by the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, and their album is called "Revelator" and there's a track called "Midnight in Harlem" that my wife really loves and I really like it as well.
MARTIN: OK. Well, we'll end on that. That's Felix Contreras. He's a reporter at NPR's arts desk. He's the co-host of ALT.LATINO. That's the online program that explores Latin alternative music and he's been covering this story for NPR.
Felix, thank you.
CONTRERAS: Thank you having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MIDNIGHT IN HARLEM") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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