When something newsworthy or popular or positive happens to a jazz musician -- a big award, say -- many in the jazz world feel astonished for about four seconds, then quickly act very smug. You know: We've been sitting here patiently, full of our aesthetic virtue, so used to being ignored, and the world has finally come around to our point of view. Are we happy about it? More to the point, what took you so long?
Are we entitled to feel that way about “River: The Joni Letters," by Herbie Hancock, being named album of the year at the Grammys on Sunday ? We could, but it would be silly. Perhaps the speculation is true that Amy Winehouse and Kanye West split the vote. And yes, it is very unusual to see a record of such modest sales win the big prize. But inasmuch as it is a jazz album, it is precisely the kind of jazz album that would win this award.
First, let's just get this over with: Where were you in 1965, Recording Academy, when Mr. Hancock made his venerated album “Maiden Voyage"?
But look one year further back to 1964. “Getz/Gilberto" won, and besides “River," it is the only more or less jazz album in 50 years of the Grammys to have earned this award. There might be instructive logic there to unravel why “River" beat some records that are far more successful and far more emblematic of their time. ("River" has sold around 55,000 copies, whereas Kanye West's “Graduation" has sold two million.)
“Getz/Gilberto" was a collaboration between the jazz saxophonist Stan Getz and the bossa nova musician Joo Gilberto, with his wife at the time, Astrud Gilberto, as occasional singer. It shares some important qualities with “River."
Both are quite beautiful, though practical: experiments with strong ideas made moderate. Both are syncretist collaborations between a flexible jazz musician and a famously uncompromising genius who invented his or her own style -- two musicians of putatively different worlds. Both feature light-voiced singing on a little less than half the tracks.
And on both, the drums sound chastened. (When a jazz record with really assertive, swinging rhythm wins album of the year, then jazz enthusiasts can feel smug. “Good taste" -- an idea that means quite a lot in this category of the Grammys -- can be telegraphed quickly by reducing the role of the drums.)
Are we entitled to feel that way about “River: The Joni Letters," by Herbie Hancock, being named album of the year at the Grammys on Sunday ? We could, but it would be silly. Perhaps the speculation is true that Amy Winehouse and Kanye West split the vote. And yes, it is very unusual to see a record of such modest sales win the big prize. But inasmuch as it is a jazz album, it is precisely the kind of jazz album that would win this award.
First, let's just get this over with: Where were you in 1965, Recording Academy, when Mr. Hancock made his venerated album “Maiden Voyage"?
But look one year further back to 1964. “Getz/Gilberto" won, and besides “River," it is the only more or less jazz album in 50 years of the Grammys to have earned this award. There might be instructive logic there to unravel why “River" beat some records that are far more successful and far more emblematic of their time. ("River" has sold around 55,000 copies, whereas Kanye West's “Graduation" has sold two million.)
“Getz/Gilberto" was a collaboration between the jazz saxophonist Stan Getz and the bossa nova musician Joo Gilberto, with his wife at the time, Astrud Gilberto, as occasional singer. It shares some important qualities with “River."
Both are quite beautiful, though practical: experiments with strong ideas made moderate. Both are syncretist collaborations between a flexible jazz musician and a famously uncompromising genius who invented his or her own style -- two musicians of putatively different worlds. Both feature light-voiced singing on a little less than half the tracks.
And on both, the drums sound chastened. (When a jazz record with really assertive, swinging rhythm wins album of the year, then jazz enthusiasts can feel smug. “Good taste" -- an idea that means quite a lot in this category of the Grammys -- can be telegraphed quickly by reducing the role of the drums.)
