Category Archives: Kenny Washington

November 25, 2020 · 2:03 pm

Congratulations to the 2021 Grammy Nominees!

John Beasley
Kurt and Danilo
Kenny Washington
Becca Stevens
Alan Broadbent
Jacob Collier (2017 Grammy winner)
Maria Schneider

I’m excited that so many of my favorite artists and interview subjects are nominated for 2021 Grammys! The list includes John Beasley; Kurt Elling, featuring Danilo Perez; Kenny Washington; Becca Stevens; Chico Pinheiro; Maria Schneider; Alan Broadbent; Chick Corea; Christian McBride; Brian Blade; Terri Lyne Carrington, and Jacob Collier (album of the year, no less!). Big congratulations to all. And stay tuned for my upcoming portrait of John “Killer Beas” Beasley in JazzTimes.

General Field

2. Album Of The Year
Award to Artist(s) and to Featured Artist(s), Songwriter(s) of new material, Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s), Mixer(s) and Mastering Engineer(s) credited with at least 33% playing time of the album, if other than Artist.

CHILOMBO
Jhené Aiko
Fisticuffs & Julian-Quán Việt Lê, producers; Fisticuffs, Julian-Quán Việt Lê, Zeke Mishanec, Christian Plata & Gregg Rominiecki, engineers/mixers; Jhené Aiko Efuru Chilombo, Julian-Quán Việt Lê, Maclean Robinson & Brian Keith Warfield, songwriters; Dave Kutch, mastering engineer
BLACK PUMAS (DELUXE EDITION)
Black Pumas
Jon Kaplan & Adrian Quesada, producers; Adrian Quesada, Jacob Sciba, Stuart Sikes & Erik Wofford, engineers/mixers; Eric Burton & Adrian Quesada, songwriters; JJ Golden, mastering engineer
EVERYDAY LIFE
Coldplay
Daniel Green, Bill Rahko & Rik Simpson, producers; Mark “Spike” Stent, engineer/mixer; Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion & Chris Martin, songwriters; Emily Lazar, mastering engineer
DJESSE VOL.3
Jacob Collier
Jacob Collier, producer; Ben Bloomberg & Jacob Collier, engineers/mixers; Jacob Collier, songwriter; Chris Allgood & Emily Lazar, mastering engineers
WOMEN IN MUSIC PT. III
HAIM
Rostam Batmanglij, Danielle Haim & Ariel Rechtshaid, producers; Rostam Batmanglij, Jasmine Chen, John DeBold, Matt DiMona, Tom Elmhirst, Joey Messina-Doerning & Ariel Rechtshaid, engineers/mixers; Rostam Batmanglij, Alana Haim, Danielle Haim, Este Haim & Ariel Rechtshaid, songwriters; Emily Lazar, mastering engineer
FUTURE NOSTALGIA
Dua Lipa
Koz, producer; Josh Gudwin & Cameron Gower Poole, engineers/mixers; Clarence Coffee Jr. & Dua Lipa, songwriters; Chris Gehringer, mastering engineer
HOLLYWOOD’S BLEEDING
Post Malone
Louis Bell & Frank Dukes, producers; Louis Bell & Manny Marroquin, engineers/mixers; Louis Bell, Adam Feeney, Austin Post & Billy Walsh, songwriters; Mike Bozzi, mastering engineer
FOLKLORE
Taylor Swift
Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner & Taylor Swift, producers; Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner, Serban Ghenea, John Hanes, Jonathan Low & Laura Sisk, engineers/mixers; Aaron Dessner & Taylor Swift, songwriters; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer

JAZZ

31. Best Improvised Jazz Solo
For an instrumental jazz solo performance. Two equal performers on one recording may be eligible as one entry. If the soloist listed appears on a recording billed to another artist, the latter’s name is in parenthesis for identification. Singles or Tracks only.

GUINEVERE
Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah, soloist
Track from: Axiom
PACHAMAMA
Regina Carter, soloist
Track from: Ona (Thana Alexa)
CELIA
Gerald Clayton, soloist
ALL BLUES
Chick Corea, soloist
Track from: Trilogy 2 (Chick Corea, Christian McBride & Brian Blade)
MOE HONK
Joshua Redman, soloist
Track from: RoundAgain (Redman Mehldau McBride Blade)

32. Best Jazz Vocal Album
For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new vocal jazz recordings.

ONA
Thana Alexa
SECRETS ARE THE BEST STORIES
Kurt Elling Featuring Danilo Pérez
MODERN ANCESTORS
Carmen Lundy
HOLY ROOM: LIVE AT ALTE OPER
Somi With Frankfurt Radio Big Band
WHAT’S THE HURRY
Kenny Washington

33. Best Jazz Instrumental Album
For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new instrumental jazz recordings.

ON THE TENDER SPOT OF EVERY CALLOUSED MOMENT
Ambrose Akinmusire
WAITING GAME
Terri Lyne Carrington And Social Science
HAPPENING: LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD
Gerald Clayton
TRILOGY 2
Chick Corea, Christian McBride & Brian Blade
ROUNDAGAIN
Redman Mehldau McBride Blade

34. Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new ensemble jazz recordings.

DIALOGUES ON RACE
Gregg August
MONK’ESTRA PLAYS JOHN BEASLEY
John Beasley
THE INTANGIBLE BETWEEN
Orrin Evans And The Captain Black Big Band
SONGS YOU LIKE A LOT
John Hollenbeck With Theo Bleckmann, Kate McGarry, Gary Versace And The Frankfurt Radio Big Band
DATA LORDS
Maria Schneider Orchestra

35. Best Latin Jazz Album
For vocal or instrumental albums containing at least 51% playing time of newly recorded material. The intent of this category is to recognize recordings that represent the blending of jazz with Latin, Iberian-American, Brazilian, and Argentinian tango music.

TRADICIONES
Afro-Peruvian Jazz Orchestra
FOUR QUESTIONS
Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
CITY OF DREAMS
Chico Pinheiro
VIENTO Y TIEMPO – LIVE AT BLUE NOTE TOKYO
Gonzalo Rubalcaba & Aymée Nuviola
TRANE’S DELIGHT
Poncho Sanchez

COMPOSING/ARRANGING

62. Best Instrumental Composition
A Composer’s Award for an original composition (not an adaptation) first released during the Eligibility Year. Singles or Tracks only.

BABY JACK
Arturo O’Farrill, composer (Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra)
BE WATER II
Christian Sands, composer (Christian Sands)
PLUMFIELD
Alexandre Desplat, composer (Alexandre Desplat)
SPUTNIK
Maria Schneider, composer (Maria Schneider)
STRATA
Remy Le Boeuf, composer (Remy Le Boeuf’s Assembly Of Shadows Featuring Anna Webber & Eric Miller)

63. Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella
An Arranger’s Award. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.

BATHROOM DANCE
Hildur Guðnadóttir, arranger (Hildur Guðnadóttir)
DONNA LEE
John Beasley, arranger (John Beasley)
HONEYMOONERS
Remy Le Boeuf, arranger (Remy Le Boeuf’s Assembly Of Shadows)
LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING
Alvin Chea & Jarrett Johnson, arrangers (Jarrett Johnson Featuring Alvin Chea)
URANUS: THE MAGICIAN
Jeremy Levy, arranger (Jeremy Levy Jazz Orchestra)

64. Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals
An Arranger’s Award. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.

ASAS FECHADAS
John Beasley & Maria Mendes, arrangers (Maria Mendes Featuring John Beasley & Orkest Metropole)
DESERT SONG
Erin Bentlage, Sara Gazarek, Johnaye Kendrick & Amanda Taylor, arrangers (Säje)
FROM THIS PLACE
Alan Broadbent & Pat Metheny, arrangers (Pat Metheny Featuring Meshell Ndegeocello)
HE WON’T HOLD YOU
Jacob Collier, arranger (Jacob Collier Featuring Rapsody)
SLOW BURN
Talia Billig, Nic Hard & Becca Stevens, arrangers (Becca Stevens Featuring Jacob Collier, Mark Lettieri, Justin Stanton, Jordan Perlson, Nic Hard, Keita Ogawa, Marcelo Woloski & Nate Werth)

11. Best Contemporary Instrumental Album
For albums containing approximately 51% or more playing time of instrumental material. For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new recordings.

AXIOM
Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah
CHRONOLOGY OF A DREAM: LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD
Jon Batiste
TAKE THE STAIRS
Black Violin
AMERICANA
Grégoire Maret, Romain Collin & Bill Frisell
LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL
Snarky Puppy

Kenny Washington – A Late Bloomer’s Slow Rise to Vocal Stardom (JazzTimes, Sept. 2020)

After 35 years as a guest singer on other peoples’ records, Oakland-based Kenny Washington, 63, is releasing his first studio album under his own name. The album is called What’s the Hurry?

“I’m originally from New Orleans, the Big Easy,” Washington says. “The people are laid back. I’ve never been in a hurry to do anything.”

Joe Locke, the extraordinary vibraphonist who works with Washington often, calls him “one of the most important male vocalists in the world…Kenny is the whole package.”

I enjoyed talking to Kenny for this profile in JazzTimes Magazine. The record is seriously good. (Get it here: https://www.kennywashingtonvocalist.com/new-album.)

Here’s a two-year-old video of him at KNKX Public Radio in Seattle (I haven’t found a video from the new album yet, but this will give you a taste of his talents).

Bill Charlap Trio – A master class in class (from @downbeatmag)

BillCharlap2 I wrote this review of the Bill Charlap Trio’s new album, Notes From New York, which appears (slightly abridged) in the May issue of DownBeat. Here’s the full review.

Bill Charlap Trio: Notes From New York

Impulse! 006002547777911

★★★★★

Maybe it’s because he’s the son of a famous songwriter (Moose Charlap of Peter Pan fame), but nobody respects a songwriter’s intentions more than Bill Charlap. The universe of pianists who treat a tune with his kind of reverence, yet can also perform the kind of musical exegesis on it that Charlap does, is essentially limited to Charlap himself. He’s often described as the epitome of mainstream pianists, in the tradition of iconic players from Art Tatum to Ahmad Jamal to Hank Jones. But the term “mainstream” becomes meaningless when one considers the technical mastery, the subtlety of his feel, his risk-taking arrangements, and his unflagging melodic and harmonic invention – or should we say, re-invention.

Fresh from the critical and popular triumph of The Silver Lining, his Jerome Kern tribute with Tony Bennett, the new album with his finely calibrated trio (Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington on drums) is his first for the newly revived Impulse! label. It delivers nine standards, only three of which are widely familiar (“I’ll Remember April,” “A Sleepin’ Bee,” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street”). The rest of the program is devoted to more obscure but delightful songs from the worlds of Broadway, film and jazz.

The title and album art couldn’t be more appropriate: Charlap is a quintessential New Yorker from a celebrated show business family, and his light touch and ultra-cool arrangements are the very embodiment of Manhattan sophistication and elegance. The cubist-inspired album cover perfectly captures the esthetic of Charlap’s approach, at once retro and modern.

The album is a master class in class. The opening track, “I’ll Remember April,” arranged to a fare-thee-well, is alone worth the price of the album. Starting with its intro, in which Charlap manipulates our perception of where the bar line lies, he plays with time and re-harmonizes the song in continually surprising ways. “Make Me Rainbows,” a nearly forgotten John Williams movie song, is a mid-tempo swinger that includes a leisurely two-bar rest for the entire trio, a silent stretch that feels so long you could rotate your tires. Other highlights include Thad Jones’ bouncy, unpredictable “Little Rascal On A Rock,” and a joyous excursion into bebop a la Bird with “Tiny’s Tempo,” which affords both Washingtons the luxury of stretching out in typically tasteful style.

Saving the best for last, Charlap’s solo-piano interpretation of “On the Sunny Side of the Street” challenges our notions of this most familiar song. Charlap plays it very slowly and thoroughly revamps its harmony, turning it into a wistful tone poem loaded with nostalgia for a bygone, more carefree era when such an optimistic song might be cheerily performed at a more sprightly tempo. The air of haunted regret will stay with you long after the last perplexing chord rings out.

Notes From New York: I’ll Remember April; Make Me Rainbows; Not A Care In The World; There Is No Music; A Sleepin’ Bee; Little Rascal On A Rock; Too Late Now; Tiny’s Tempo; On The Sunny Side Of The Street (54:01)

Personnel: Bill Charlap, piano; Peter Washington, double bass; Kenny Washington, drums.

Ordering info: http://www.impulse-label.com