Many Artists With Bay Area Ties Up for a Grammy Award
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- From delicate a cappella harmony to down-home gritty blues: Bay Area Grammy nominees are in the house.
The Bay Area will be well represented at the Grammy awards. This year there are 21 nominees from the San Francisco chapter representing a wide range of genres.
While some of the artists belong in other chapters across the country, they maintain Bay Area ties.
H.E.R. from Vallejo has eight nominations, including "Album of the Year" and "Song of the Year."
"I couldn't believe it. This is crazy!" H.E.R said.
In an interview with CBS, she gave a shout-out to her fellow female nominees.
"Really, really dope to see just the women killing it," she said.
Rapper Saweetie was born in Santa Clara. She is up for "Best New Artist" and "Best Rap Song".
"Mr. San Francisco" Tony Bennett is up for a handful of the awards along with Lady Gaga, for their collaborative jazz album.
Another San Franciscan, Jake Heggie, is up for "Best Classical Solo Vocal Album" for a recording made with opera star Jamie Barton. He showed off a bright, shiny medal during his zoom interview.
"This is from the recording academy and it's my Grammy nominee medal!"
The Grammy Awards show, which was postponed due to a surge in COVID, was then rescheduled to April 3 in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, Heggie and Barton were already scheduled to play their nominated work at UC Berkeley's Hertz Hall.
"Our category will be announced while we're performing. We'll have it on backstage! And we'll have a bottle of champagne ready to toast whoever wins," Heggie said.
Also nominated: the San Francisco Symphony for "Best Orchestral Performance."
The nominated work is Nico Muhly's "Throughline."
Because of the pandemic, the recording features individual recordings later assembled through an intricate editing process.
Only a few in the orchestra could be on stage at any time.
Wind instruments were recorded individually as were soloists from around the world.
"I knew that the general brief was to show off the musicians at the symphony but to incorporate the collaborative partners and everything was going to be distanced," said composer and arranger Muhly.
The symphony has another nomination: music director laureate Michael Tilson Thomas and engineer Jack Vad are up for "Best Classical Compendium."
But how about a different kind of classic: Bay Area blues legends Charlie Musselwhite and Elvin Bishop are up for "Best Traditional Blues Album" for "100 Year of Blues," which was recorded in Bishop's garage.
"It's really easy to work with Elvin because we kind of think alike when it comes to music, especially the blues," Musselwhite said.
"Charlie's got a very strong identity; an idea of his own identity and that makes it easier to deal with because you know what you're going to get. It's going to be good and all you got to do is roll with the flow," Bishop added.
One Bay Area nominee is up for album that is part of a healing journey.
The Peninsula's Laura Sullivan is nominated for "Best New Age Album" for her recording "Pieces of Forever."
The pianist wrote it during the pandemic after she lost her father to Alzheimer's Disease.
KPIX asked her about one song called "When We Were Happy."
"When we were happy, you know, it's about those memories. I think all of us collect these memories throughout our lifetime that are so precious they are pieces of forever that you carry forward with us," Sullivan explained.
Among the local nominees, there's a super-cool twist: a string quartet nominated for best jazz instrumental.
"This is a big deal because I always feel like we're more of a jazz group in our hearts," said musician David Balakrishnan.
Balakrishnan is founder of the Bay Area's Turtle Island Quartet. They're nominated for a recording done with jazz great Terence Blanchard "Oh, it's so completely connected to the art of Wayne Shorter, the tremendous sax legend. Terence said one of Wayne's definitions of jazz, he says jazz means 'I dare you' and this record has this quality because it has some unusual combinations of sound," Balakrishnan said.
Finally, there are multiple nominations between two legendary engineers: Skywalker Sound's Leslie Ann Jones and Michael Romanowski of Coast Mastering.
They're up for "Best Immersive Audio Album" and "Best Engineered Album, Classical."
"If I win, I'm going to jump for joy," said Romanowski.
The immersive album involved the U.S. Army Field Band, 60-plus soldiers crowded into Skywalker Sound's massive sound stage.
"I have to say these musicians are just fantastic. They would be playing for any orchestra anywhere in country but they chose to play in the Army," Jones said.
Their second shared nomination involved recording the all-male a cappella ensemble known as Chanticleer. It was a joy.
These three engineers have recorded and mastered countless albums.
"I work with such excellent composers and singers and instrumentalists, I'm always a bit in awe," Jones exclaimed.
Among the other nominees with Bay Area ties: Will Chason and Scott McDowell for their engineering talents on Kanye West's "Donda." They're up for "Album of the Year."
Ledisi, who was raised in Oakland has one nomination for "Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album."
The Deftones from Sacramento have two nominations: for "Best Rock Performance" and "Best Metal Performance."
Will Ackerman, who was raised in Palo Alto, is also up for "Best New Age Album."
Sergio Assad has two nominations for "Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble" and "Best Contemporary Classical/Composition."
And Marin County's Great Bonnie Raitt will receive a "Lifetime Achievement Award."