With an uptick in infections due to the surging Omicron variant of the Coronavirus, the Recording Academy and CBS have decided to postpone this year’s GRAMMY Awards ceremony. The GRAMMY’s aren’t the only first quarter casualty, the NFL could be looking for a new home for this year’s Super Bowl as numbers in Los Angeles continue to spike. While music and entertainment lovers await the announcement of a future date, re-visit this year’s nominees.
“After careful consideration and analysis with city and state officials, health and safety experts, the artist community and our many partners, the Recording Academy® and CBS have postponed the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards® Show. The health and safety of those in our music community, the live audience, and the hundreds of people who work tirelessly to produce our show remains our top priority. Given the uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant, holding the show on January 31 simply contains too many risks. We look forward to celebrating Music’s Biggest Night® on a future date, which will be announced soon.”
If last week’s GRAMMY Award nominations are any indication for gospel music, it seems like gospel is gonna be just fine! Though the list featured some very familiar names, their albums and songs are every bit of deserving of the GRAMMY nod. If you’ve stayed up at night wondering about the future of gospel music, worry no more!
Millennials take the blame for so much these days. But according to the Recording Academy, they’re also due some credit for the success of gospel music, this year! The youngest nominee in the gospel category is 20 and the oldest is 47. Koryn Hawthorne is 20 (her birthday is December 26th, Jekalyn Carr is 21, Tori Kelly is 25, The Walls Group ages range from 21-28 and Jonathan McReynolds is 29. At 47 and 48 respectively, Brian Courtney Wilson and Kirk Franklin are the only non-Millenial/Generation Z artists nominated this year!
Jonathan McReynolds, Jekalyn Carr, Tori Kelly, Koryn Hawthorne and Brian Courtney Wilson populate this year’s field for Gospel Song of the Year. On the Album side, the list has one addition, The Walls Group. Millenials, dominate the gospel GRAMMY noms, y’all…!
The sound is reflective of their respective generations, too! Ask any child who Tori Kelly is and they may not know who you’re talking about until you start singing “Don’t You Worry Bout a Thing“. Earlier this year, Kelly shocked her fans when she announced her plans to release a gospel album. If you’re coming to gospel music, who better to hold the door open for you than Kirk Franklin?Kelly teamed up with Kirk Franklin who dug deep into his mixed bag of previously unrecorded hits to help finalize Kelly’s album that grew from its initial single: “Help Us to Love” ft. The Hamiltones. Their collaboration “Never Alone” and Kelly’s Christian/Gospel album “Hiding Place” is up for Best Gospel Song and Album. Kelly features Jonathan McReynolds on “Just As Sure” and Lecrae on “Masterpiece” but really shines on the soulful “Sunday” and “Psalm 42” a song I wouldn’t be surprised if it made an impact on the Christian (CCM) charts and radio.
Jonathan McReynolds’ “Cycles” and album “Make Room” are nominated in respective categories. McReynolds’ album is replete with songs for believers in what many consider the “tweener” stages of spiritual maturity. No one can truly put an age on spiritual maturity but, you know the stage in your spiritual life he’s singing about.
The devil, he learns from your mistakes-even if you don’t!
The eruption you hear from the crowd when McReynold’s sings that line is the collective revelation of the next line: “that’s how he keeps you in cycles…” A whole sermon in 15 seconds! Teaming with Doe Jones of Forever Jones, the two sermonized a life lesson set to life music as only McReynolds can. Songs like “Better“, “Graduate” and “Make Room” make you want to be a better believer! In fact, they play like a spiritual report card, if nothing else! In Dallas earlier this year, McReynolds intimated that he discovered his need for more grace in the process of writing this album! Whether you need grace or a jaunt toward spiritual maturity, “Make Room” challenges believers to do just that in their spiritual life, earning the album and single “Cycles” a GRAMMY nom this year.
She draws almost an immediate comparison to Pastor Shirley Caesar, but this past year, Evangelist Jekalyn Carr has turned the comparisons into mere recollections. She has come into her own as an artist, author and entrepreneur. She hasn’t even begun to evolve and though she’s been in the conversation for the better part of the last five years, she just recently turned 21. Also making a huge turn with her maturation and evolution is her musical output!
If you made it through Jekalyn Carr’s “It’s Yours” without at least tapping your foot, snapping your fingers or clapping your hands, you probably need a wellness check. Jekalyn Carr has delivered possibly her best album yet with “One Nation Under God”. Considering the current political climate, some listeners weren’t quite sure what to expect from Carr. Once the album dropped, all speculation went out the window!
“You Will Win” preceded her book release by the same name, “Stay With Me” and “It’s Yours” were sent to radio and inspired listeners everywhere. Though the radio singles performed well, the complete project is stellar and a step above “The Life Project” which netted a GRAMMY nomination for “You’re Bigger” (Gospel Performance/Song). Because recorded music now exists in a singles driven industry, many listeners are oblivious to the greatness on this album. “In This Atmosphere” features Donald Lawrence, “On the Cross” features Pastor Steve Hare of REACH Radio, “Never Alone” not only features a deep groove, it features Cachet Morganfield and Nariah Smith returns on “Gonna Be Great“. The Life Project featured a combined choir and they return on this album for: “We Are One“. Top to bottom, this album is a winner (see what I did, there?) so it’ll come as no surprise to see Carr win this award season!
Sometimes I watch too much television. Other times, I don’t even have the television on. My favorite drama on now is “Greenleaf“. A few seasons ago, I watched a performance of a song that I didn’t even remember until I met an artist who recorded the song! In an interview with Koryn Hawthorne, I immediately remembered hearing the song on the show! In an interview with Angela Jollivette, she spoke to us about the decision to insert “Won’t He Do It” and other gospel songs and artists into the season. The song burst onto the airwaves and has ridden the wave of popularity all the way to a performance on the Soul Train Music Awards and a 2018 GRAMMY nomination! Congratulations to Koryn, and her wonderful team at RCA Inspiration!
One unforgettable note about Koryn Hawthorne: when asked about her decision to sing gospel music following her time on “The Voice“, she made a decision to honor God with her voice if she was ever able to reach this stage of her music career! A decision worth celebrating!
You’re probably wondering how The Walls Group ended up in the 2018 GRAMMY Awards Best Gospel Album category, you’re not alone. You also probably haven’t listened to “The Other Side“. Don’t feel bad though, the group has been rather quiet since last November’s release. Rhea got married and had a baby, big bro Darrell is singing and writing all over the industry, the little brother and sister are growing (way) up and wait, there’s more Walls’???
The Other Side featured a variety of genres, brought together by the brilliant minds of the Walls’ and super-producer Warryn Campbell. The first single from the album: “My Life” was a straightforward anthem letting everybody know that the kids on the couch in the living were all grown up, now! Their song selection also changed. If you were expecting more fun, innocuous music from the Walls’, you ended up on the ‘other side’ of their intended audience. It’s fair to surmise that their new content has in a way displaced them from their initial dedication as a “novelty” group. The Walls Group is a group comprised of young adults, now! Songs like: “And You Don’t Stop” “Word” and “The Other Side“(a song about Heaven) show us just how mature this young group is. Listening to this album is the aural equivalent of growing pains. With growth comes maturity and with their vocal and maturity in life, The Walls Group has earned their latest GRAMMY nomination!
Alas…what more can be said about Brian Courtney Wilson’s “A Great Work“? His album is so good, that it inspired an entire ongoing series here at SMG: The Gospel Music Series. It changed the way I listen to gospel music and helped me understand that not all gospel music is for Sunday morning nor should it be judged by its Sunday morning-worthiness! The name says it all…it’s a great body of work! From the first track to the last, the album is his best to date! For those of you familiar with Wilson, you remember his last album was also GRAMMY nominated. He’s no stranger to GRAMMY nominations but this should be his year to win! Brian Courtney Wilson is a world class singer! For some reason this is overlooked in gospel music, today. Flat foot singing, he doesn’t have fireworks going off in the background, no dancers on the side of the stage, but he does dress well and sing in pure, sincere excellence!
In R&B, we’d call him a crooner! His smooth voice rarely ventures into a squall and his spiritual conviction mirrors his musical approach. “A Great Work” is an album for believers who as the Apostle Paul ‘know whom they have believed’ (2 Timothy 1:12). Wilson hasn’t shied away from addressing social ills, either. “Heal” was the first single from the album and confronts the current condition of our blood that ‘runs in the street‘. The song bemoans the state of our union and hopes that all generations can find a way to not only heal the current ills, but to live together in harmony.
As a settled soul, a song like “Noise” is the cure for life’s many questions. You may not have experienced it yet, but at a certain point in life, you will! When those questions come, they’ll challenge your conviction to the which you’ll need the confidence that God is doing ‘a great work’ in you. When all else fails, sing the scripture! That’s exactly what Wilson does and it’s phenomenal, as the second single and title track from the album, I’m certain you’ve the GRAMMY nominated song (Best Gospel Performance/Song). Wilson teamed up with Bishop Marvin Winans on “My Witness Is In Heaven“- doesn’t get much smoother in gospel than that…and not one to be behind the times, don’t miss the trap choir on “Increase My Faith“.
Perhaps my favorite song from Wilson’s album is: “Our Father Is Kind” a song he says was inspired by a conversation with Kirk Franklin. “Our father is kind” was Franklin’s answer to Wilson’s query for the success the artist, producer, composer and de facto face of gospel music. Franklin has remained busy since that conversation.
Last year, Franklin celebrated Wilson, Pastor Travis Greene and Jonathan McReynolds as the future of men gospel music. Franklin will once again face off with Wilson for GRAMMY consideration as producer, co-writer and featured artist with Tori Kelly and label executive (Fo Yo Soul) with The Walls Group. Kirk Franklin is again in the mix at GRAMMY time, but as suggested by the 2018 GRAMMY gospel categories, the kids are alright and the future of gospel music will be just fine!
This post is a response to another article. To better understand my perspective and fully grasp what is being said in response to the article, it may be best to read the article or listen to the podcast, first. You can read the article, here.
There are a number of topics and issues about making music as a believer today that are difficult to understand. Varied perspectives, upbringing, experiences and preferences all shape the way we approach Christian and Gospel music today. It also affects how it is delivered to the broad audience the genres cater to. Earlier today, I read an article by the Christian Broadcast Network entitled “The Battle for the Soul of the Devil’s Music’: Christian Singers Treated Like ‘Second-Class Citizens?” which detailed Mark Joseph‘s interview on Billy Hallowell’s podcast. In the interview, he spoke about his book “Rock Gets Religion” which ponders why and how religious music should transcend genre specifications. In the interview as was the premise for the article, Mr. Joseph bemoaned the current stature and perception of gospel and contemporary Christian music artists. In short, Mr. Joseph feels that CCM artists should bypass the genre label and join the ranks of mainstream music makers, but is that even possible?
In the interview, he noted that “Right now, Christians are being treated like second-and third-class citizens.”
Mr. Joseph believes that some artists’ creations are inhibited by the genre and would perform better as mainstream music. This incessant debate may never go away. We all know many celebrities who got their start in church and honed their skills on Sunday morning. Some of the world’s best singers and musicians cut their teeth praising the Lord. Many have gone astray, and many others simply “make” music in non-religious genres. But Mr. Joseph suggests that some artists take their talents beyond the “walls” of religious music. At this point, I believe the issue is whether or not labels would agree with this premise. In fact, many of the Christian and gospel labels are simply in another room or suite at many of the mainstream labels. The way the music industry is set up, almost every company and record label is under the umbrella of the big three.
Joseph’s very interesting points are sacrilegious to some, and I don’t know who will be the lamb of sacrifice willing to decline a GRAMMY Award (as Joseph suggests) in these ever evolving musical times! Gospel and Christian music are awarded in the non-televised pre-show with only two categories each. I mean who in these days and times is going to decline a GRAMMY?!? Some of Joseph’s points are good and some are unrealistically outlandish. I do however sense that a catalyst for the next real revival within our genres will consist of non-traditional ideas and industry practices.
All in all, there’s lots to unpack in the article. I think that every now and then, someone in gospel says something like this but not often enough or with enough follow-through. It’s actualized at the Stellar Awards with the influx of secular entertainers who are believers and mainstream financial sponsors, but that’s mostly it. As Mr. Joseph said, our industries are walled off…even from each other-I’ll add. Additionally, I’ll say that CCM is an entirely different world from gospel and what may work for them isn’t even at play in gospel. For example, Mr. Joseph works at PureFlix, which by default is a film division of the contemporary gospel genre.
Mr. Joseph’s point of view isn’t altogether implausible, however. What if the bridge beyond the great divide in gospel and CCM is found in banding together to reach beyond implicitly Christian audiences for art’s sake and without abandoning the great commission?!? I don’t think this will solve Mr. Joseph’s issue of Christian artists being treated like second and third class citizens, but it will increase the net worth of the work put out by artists in the music industry. This article is the latest entry in the ongoing conversation here at SMG entitled: The Gospel Music Series, feel free to join the conversation.
What are your thoughts on Mr. Joseph’s premise? Share your thoughts in the comment section, below.
GRAMMY® WINNER PATTI LUPONE AND CURRENT NOMINEE BEN PLATT TO HERALD A SPECIAL BROADWAY TRIBUTE AT THE 60TH GRAMMY AWARDS®
The Recording Academy™ has announced the first group of artists to perform on this year’s milestone 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards®. Taking the stage on Music’s Biggest Night®will be current nominee Childish Gambino; GRAMMY® winner and current nominee Lady Gaga; GRAMMY winners and current nominees Little Big Town; GRAMMY winner and current nominee P!nk; and, in celebration of the show’s return to New York after 15 years, two-time GRAMMY winner Patti LuPone, who will reprise her 1981 GRAMMY performance of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina,” and “Dear Evan Hansen’s” currently nominated Ben Platt, performing a classic from “West Side Story” in a special Broadway tribute honoring the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Leonard Bernstein. Live from Madison Square Garden in New York City, and hosted by award-winning television personality and performer James Corden, the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be broadcast live in HDTV and 5.1 surround sound on the CBS Television Network, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT.
Making his GRAMMY stage debut, Childish Gambino is currently nominated for five GRAMMY Awards: Album Of The Year and Best Urban Contemporary Album (“Awaken, My Love!“); and Record Of The Year, Best R&B Song, and Best Traditional R&B Performance (“Redbone”).
Set to perform a track from her GRAMMY-nominated album, Joanne (Best Pop Vocal Album), six-time GRAMMY winner Lady Gaga is also nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance (“Million Reasons”).
Two-time GRAMMY winners Little Big Town are nominated for Best Country Album (The Breaker) and Best Country Duo/Group Performance (“Better Man”).
Three-time GRAMMY winner P!nk is nominated in the Best Pop Solo Performance category for “What About Us.”
First-time nominee Ben Platt is up for Best Musical Theater Album (Dear Evan Hansen).
The 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards are produced by AEG Ehrlich Ventures for the Recording Academy. Ken Ehrlich is executive producer, Louis J. Horvitz is director, Ben Winston is a producer, Chantal Sausedo is the Talent Producer and David Wild and Ehrlich are the writers.
ABOUT THE RECORDING ACADEMY
The Recording Academy represents the voices of performers, songwriters, producers, engineers, and all music professionals. Dedicated to ensuring the recording arts remain a thriving part of our shared cultural heritage, the Academy honors music’s history while investing in its future through the GRAMMY Museum®, advocates on behalf of music creators, supports music people in times of need through MusiCares®, and celebrates artistic excellence through the GRAMMY Awards—music’s only peer-recognized accolade and highest achievement. As the world’s leading society of music professionals, we work year-round to foster a more inspiring world for creators.
For more information about the Academy, please visit www.grammy.com. For breaking news and exclusive content, follow @RecordingAcad on Twitter, “like” Recording Academy on Facebook, and join the Recording Academy’s social communities on Instagram, Tumblr, and YouTube.
BILL GRAHAM, SEYMOUR STEIN, AND JOHN WILLIAMS TO BE HONORED WITH TRUSTEES AWARD; TONY AGNELLO AND RICHARD FACTOR TO RECEIVE TECHNICAL GRAMMY® AWARD
The Recording Academy™ announced its Special Merit Awards recipients today, and this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award honorees are Hal Blaine, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Louis Jordan, the Meters, Queen, and Tina Turner. Bill Graham, Seymour Stein, and John Williams are Trustees Award honorees; and Tony Agnello and Richard Factor are the Technical GRAMMY®Award recipients. A special award presentation ceremony and concert celebrating the honorees will be held in summer 2018. Additional details regarding the ceremony will be announced in the coming weeks.
“This year’s Special Merit Awards recipients are a prestigious group of diverse and influential creators who have crafted or contributed to some of the most distinctive recordings in music history. These exceptionally inspiring figures are being honored as legendary performers, creative architects, and technical visionaries. Their outstanding accomplishments and passion for their craft have created a timeless legacy.” -Neil Portnow, President/CEO of the Recording Academy.
The Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates performers who have made outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording, while the Trustees Award honors such contributions in areas other than performance. The Recording Academy’s National Board of Trustees determines the honorees of both awards. Technical GRAMMY Award recipients are voted on by the Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing® Advisory Council and Chapter Committees, and are ratified by the Academy’s Trustees. The award is presented to individuals and companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording industry.
ABOUT THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD HONOREES:
Starting his career in the 1950s, Hal Blaine is best known as the lead drummer and founder of the legendary Wrecking Crew. He has recorded with iconic artists such as Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, and many more. He lent his artistry to Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” productions, creating one of rock and roll’s most recognizable beats. However, Blaine’s talent does not stop at the conventional drum kit. Some of his best-known songs include him drumming on Sparkletts water jugs for the Beach Boys’ “Caroline, No” and dragging tire chains across a concrete floor for Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” During his impressive career, Blaine has worked on nearly 6,000 tracks; of those, 350 have been Top 10 hits, and 40 have been No. 1s (including fellow honoree Neil Diamond’s “Song Sung Blue”), and worked on six consecutive Record Of The Year GRAMMY-winning tracks between 1965 and 1970.
Throughout an illustrious and wide-ranging musical career, Neil Diamond has sold more than 130 million albums worldwide and has dominated the charts for more than five decades with 38 Top 40 singles and 16 Top 10 albums. Before becoming one of the most noted and successful recording artists in the world, Diamond’s early recognition came as a songwriter. His recorded songs have become a part of the fabric of America’s songbook with a wide range of international hits that include “Solitary Man,” “Cherry, Cherry,” “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon,” “I’m A Believer,” “Red Red Wine,” “Holly Holy,” “Thank The Lord For The Night Time,” “Sweet Caroline,” “Kentucky Woman,” “Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show,” “Cracklin’ Rosie,” “I Am…I Said,” “Song Sung Blue,” “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” (with Barbra Streisand), “September Morn,” and “Heartlight,” among many others. Diamond has won a GRAMMY Award, a Golden Globe Award, the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Kennedy Center Honor, and has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriter’s Hall Of Fame. In 2009, he was honored as MusiCares® Person Of The Year.
Emmylou Harris‘ career has been evolving since the 1970s, encompassing pop, folk, country, and now, alternative. She has recorded with myriad artists such as Gram Parsons, Beck, Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Roy Orbison, to name a few, as well as with Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton as part of supergroup Trio. Harris’ distinctive voice has allowed her to cross musical boundaries and made her one of the most influential and admired women in contemporary country music. Few in pop or country music have achieved such honesty or revealed such maturity in their writing. Forty years into her career, Harris, a 13-time GRAMMY winner, keeps proving that she never stops looking ahead.
Louis Jordan* enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s as the King of the Jukebox. The American musician, songwriter, and bandleader helped pioneer the sound of rock and was dubbed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the Father of Rhythm & Blues and the Grandfather of Rock and Roll. Jordan’s talent, combined with his comedic flair, helped him shatter race barriers, achieving popularity with both black and white audiences. Throughout his lifetime, he was able to duet with some of the biggest artists of his day, including Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong.
The Meters—Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste, Art Neville, Cyril Neville, Leo Nocentelli, and George Porter Jr.—are considered by many to be the founding fathers of funk and, for more than 50 years, they have grooved their way around the globe. They have toured and performed with such artists as the Rolling Stones, Dr. John, Robert Palmer, Labelle, Earl King, Allen Toussaint, and Lee Dorsey. Their trademark sound of syncopated layered percussion intertwined with gritty grooves on guitar, bass, and organ, blends funk, blues, and dance grooves with a New Orleans vibe that is regarded as one of the most influential in music history. The Meters’ unique place as a touchstone for countless artists across many genres and as one of the most sampled groups in all of hip-hop and pop music, have kept them relevant to contemporary audiences in a way that few groups can claim.
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Queen has amassed a staggering list of sales, awards, and hall of fame inductions that is second to none. Their impressive string of No. 1 albums and top-charting singles continue to put Queen in the Top 10 of all-time iTunes sales. The band has received multiple Ivor Novello Awards, an MTV Global Icon Award, and two recordings enshrined in the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame®—”Bohemeian Rhapsody” and “We Will Rock You”/”We Are The Champions,” which also remain popular songs at sports events and arenas around the world. Recently, Queen became the first artist ever to sell more than 6 million copies of an album in the U.K. with their Greatest Hits album. Even with the tragic loss of their uniquely talented frontman Freddie Mercury*, Queen remain one of the most revered bands in rock and pop history, able to claim one of the most enduring song catalogs of all time. With their sterling song craft, virtuoso musicality, and colossal spectacle of their live performances, Queen—John Deacon, Brian May, Mercury, and Roger Taylor—captured hearts and conquered charts like no other band in history, a legacy that continues to live through the ongoing work and concert performances fronted by May and Taylor, presently joined for concert performances by the extraordinary American vocalist Adam Lambert.
Tina Turner has been the Queen of Rock and Roll since she started her musical career in the 1950s. She is well-known for her extravagant live performances and impressive raw voice. Globally, her concert ticket sales have broken records for every tour. Turner’s albums have all consistently charted on the Billboard 200 and have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. Her grandeur has been admired by many other prominent figures, including Beyoncé, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, and David Bowie. Her determination and sheer talent has crystallized her as a household name around the globe.
ABOUT THE TRUSTEES AWARD HONOREES:
At the Fillmore Auditorium, Fillmore West, Winterland, and Fillmore East, Bill Graham* created the modern rock concert. He discovered and managed artists such as Santana, and organized national tours for Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and George Harrison. Having arrived in America as a 10-year-old Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany with not much more than the clothes on his back, Graham raised millions of dollars for charitable causes by staging Live Aid as well as many other benefit tours.
Seymour Stein‘s cutting-edge consciousness for the next wave in music can be traced all the way back to the late 1960s, when he began his career at Billboardmagazine at the age of 15. Having founded Sire Records with producer Richard Gottehrer in 1966, Stein’s eccentric taste in music combined with his knack for predicting what the next big thing in music will be, has continuously proven to be prosperous. His talent has earned him the title of Vice President of Warner Bros. Records along with being co-founder of Sire Records, a sub-division of Warner Music Group, and inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Some of Stein’s most notable discoveries include Ramones, the Pretenders, Talking Heads, k.d. Lang, Barenaked Ladies, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Cult, the Cure, Tom Tom Club, Spacehog, Primal Scream, Seal, Madness, Madonna, Depeche Mode, the Smiths, Ice-T, and the Undertones.
John Williams is one of the most prolific and celebrated film composers of all time. He has won 23 GRAMMY Awards spanning the last 50 years, with various honors for composing/scoring, performance, and arranging. In addition to his GRAMMY Awards, Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, seven British Academy Film Awards, and four Emmys. His 1977 soundtrack to Star Wars was an Album Of The Year nominee and was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 2007. Some of Williams’ most notable scores include Jaws, the Star Wars series, Superman: The Movie, the Indiana Jones series, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Home Alone, Hook,Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, the first three Harry Potter films,Catch Me If You Can, Memoirs of a Geisha, War Horse, and Lincoln.
ABOUT THE TECHNICAL GRAMMY AWARD HONOREE: Tony Agnello and Richard Factor, through their company Eventide, have influenced the way we make records for nearly 50 years, inventing and producing a wide variety of original audio effects devices, creating the first rack-mounted special effect processors for studio use, and making sophisticated studio processors available to musicians. Founded in 1971 in the basement of Sound Exchange studio on West 54th St. in New York City, Eventide invented the first tape machine autolocator for the Ampex MM1000 multitrack recorder, allowing the operator to precisely and automatically rewind the tape to a specific location at the press of a button—a feature soon standard equipment on every professional machine. Since then, they’ve created myriad products that have forever changed the recording industry, including the landmark H910 Harmonizer® effects processor, whose underlying technology forms the basis of all pitch-shifting and pitch-correction devices today. It allowed the use of delay and pitch effects separately and in combination, impacting the sound of records such as David Bowie’s Low, Kraftwerk’s Computer World, AC/DC’s Back In Black, and Parliament-Funkadelic’s “Aqua Boogie.”
*Denotes posthumous award honoree.
ABOUT THE RECORDING ACADEMY
The Recording Academy represents the voices of performers, songwriters, producers, engineers, and all music professionals. Dedicated to ensuring the recording arts remain a thriving part of our shared cultural heritage, the Academy honors music’s history while investing in its future through the GRAMMY Museum®, advocates on behalf of music creators, supports music people in times of need through MusiCares, and celebrates artistic excellence through the GRAMMY Awards®—music’s only peer-recognized accolade and highest achievement. As the world’s leading society of music professionals, we work year-round to foster a more inspiring world for creators.
For more information about the Academy, please visit www.grammy.com. For breaking news and exclusive content, follow @RecordingAcad on Twitter, “like” Recording Academy on Facebook, and join the Recording Academy’s social communities on Instagram, Tumblr, and YouTube.
