Tag Archives: Becca Stevens

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
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Filed under Alan Broadbent, Becca Stevens, Brian Blade, Chico Pinehiro, Christian McBride, Danilo Perez, Jacob Collier, Jazz Times, John Beasley, Kenny Washington, Kurt Elling, Maria Schneider, Music Writing and Clips, Terri Lyne Carrington

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June 14, 2016 · 4:08 pm

Becca Stevens Band Blends Jazz, Folk and Rock in Pittsburgh

Becca Stevens

Becca Stevens

Appearing with her band before a small but enthusiastic audience in a small club in Pittsburgh, Becca Stevens’s music sometimes sounded the way Appalachian folk songs might if they were given astute, philosophical lyrics suggestive of romantic yearning and nature’s magic, and reharmonized and played by jazz musicians of enormous skill and subtlety. Here’s my review from DownBeat.com on May 27, 2016.

“Mmm-hmm… mmm-hmm…” With that sensuous, murmured affirmation, repeated rhythmically, the singer-songwriter Becca Stevens began her song “I Asked” on May 23 at Pittsburgh’s James Street Gastropub & Speakeasy.

In her strong but vulnerable soprano, she sang: “I asked my love/what do you need/ to make your wild heart/beat,” accompanying herself only on the charango, an Andean 10-string lute, on which she played an intricate, beguiling counter-melody line before the members of her namesake band joined in.

Stevens has performed this song, from her critically acclaimed third album, Perfect Animal (Universal Music Classics), in many contexts over the last couple of years. It has an undeniable emotional urgency and pleasurable tension-and-release, no matter whether she plays it solo or with a large world-percussion ensemble and three back-up singers, as she does on Snarky Puppy’s Family Dinner, Vol. 2. (The remarkable live-in-studio video of the Snarky Puppy version has been viewed nearly 400,000 times on YouTube.)

Stevens played the Pittsburgh gig before a small but enthusiastic audience, with a stripped-down version of her band: Chris Tordini on bass and vocals and Jordan Perlson on drums. (A fourth bandmate, pianist-accordionist-vocalist Liam Robinson, was unavailable that evening.)

In this performance, the music often sounded the way Appalachian folk songs might if they were given astute, philosophical lyrics suggestive of romantic yearning and nature’s magic, and reharmonized and played by jazz musicians of enormous skill and subtlety.

In a former era, Stevens might have been considered a “folkie.” But in the 1960s heyday of folk music, the idea of folk musicians going to a conservatory to study jazz would have been considered pretty far out; times have changed.

The band’s sound is strikingly original and flexible: On their second album, Weightless (Sunnyside), the folk roots are more obvious in the band’s acoustic settings; on Perfect Animal, the sound is just as quirky, but denser and more electric.

Notwithstanding the folk leanings of the band, all three of the musicians present at the Pittsburgh show are in-demand jazz players. In addition to her appearance with Snarky Puppy, Stevens has sung with Billy Childs’ Laura Nyro Reimagined project, pianist-composer Taylor Eigsti, bassist-vocalist Esperanza Spalding, and singers Gretchen Parlato and Rebecca Martin, with whom she formed the group Tillery.

Bassist Tordini, in addition to his longtime collaboration with Stevens, works with drummer/composer Tyshawn Sorey and pianist Matt Mitchell; drummer Perlson has played with pianist Bobby Avey and alto sax master Rudresh Mahanthappa.

There’s an invigorating freshness and idealism in Stevens’ songwriting, in which twisty melodies, bleak and poignant, are illuminated by unexpected chords and shifting meters. Stevens is also one of the most fearlessly innovative writers of choral parts, with frequent use of call-and-response and fugue-like structures.

Her vocal harmonies favor austere 2nds and 4ths, sometimes resolving, sometimes not. Although the songs worked their usual magic in the trio format, with excellent backup singing by Tordini, Robinson’s third voice and evocative accordion were missed.

After opening with the lovely, nature-inspired song “Tillery,” with lyrics by American poet Jane Tyson Clement, they played “I’ll Notice,” an original from the 2011 album Weightless, featuring Stevens playing a charmingly off-kilter ukulele. The program also included the hypnotic “Imperfect Animals,” for which she switched to a reverb-laden Stratocaster, and her fervent, idiosyncratic takes on Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin’ ’Bout You” and Usher’s “You Make Me Wanna.”

She also featured new originals: “Both Still Here” (a love song from an upcoming project she calls “Regina”) and “The Muse,” a song she wrote with folk-rock legend David Crosby that will appear on new albums by both artists.

In a DownBeat Players profile in January 2015, Stevens said that, despite her frequent collaborations with jazz artists, she wants to make sure she doesn’t get pigeonholed as a “jazz vocalist.” As long as she continues to write such blazingly original tunes and sing them wholeheartedly, she can rest easy.

(Note: To see a video of Becca Stevens performing “I Asked” with Snarky Puppy, click here.)

—Allen Morrison

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