via 2024 GRAMMYs

We are thrilled to announce that five TKA artists have received 6 awards for The 66th Annual Grammy Awards. These artists include Béla Fleck (x2), Meshell Ndegeocello, Bobby Rush, and Terence Blanchard.

Congratulations to every one of the winners for their outstanding achievements and well-deserved recognition!

Full Winners List Below:

Best Alternative Jazz Album  —  Meshell Ndegeocello

The Omnichord Real Book

Best Traditional Blues Album — Bobby Rush 

All My Love for You

Best Global Music Performance — Béla Fleck

Pashto –  Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer & Zakir Hussain ft. Rakesh Chaurasia

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album — Béla Fleck

As We Speak – Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer ft. Rakesh Chaurasia

Best Opera Recording — Terence Blanchard 

Blanchard: Champion – The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus

via Alligator Records

“A legendary guitarist…impeccable and spirited…a distinguished American player.”

–Rolling Stone

“Deceptively loose but always tight…the raspy chuckle in Bishop’s singing and the sharp sting of his guitar are forceful and fresh, enduring and fun.”

–Fresh Air, NPR

Elvin Bishop, Alligator Records recording artist and Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer, recently joined GRAMMY Award-winning band Los Lobos to create a new version of Bishop’s politically-charged song, What The Hell Is Going On?. The song, a concert staple for Bishop that decries political extremism, was released in a previous version on the 2020 GRAMMY-nominated Alligator Records album 100 Years Of Blues, by Bishop and his friend, blues icon Charlie Musselwhite. The new version was recorded in June at Los Lobos’ East L.A. studio.

Bishop, whose recording career spans six decades, is beloved as a natural storyteller, an endlessly creative guitarist, a slyly good-humored songwriter and an instantly crowd-pleasing performer. Bishop says the song continues to evolve, but the anti-authoritarian message remains steadfast. “It’s like a news report of what’s outrageous,” Bishop deadpans, then says, “It’s important for people to hear and maybe it’ll get some more people to vote.”

As for the new recording, Bishop says, “I am amazed by Los Lobos, by how rich their repertoire is, and by their vocals and musicianship. They invited me up on stage at Rancho Nicassio (in Northern California), we played What The Hell Is Going On? and it was perfect. The crowd loved it. So we all met up in Los Angeles a little while later and recorded it.”

Elvin Bishop on TKA

via The New York Times

A good musician’s relationship with the past is tricky. You want to move forward without entirely forsaking what you’ve already done. You don’t want it defining you when so much future defining lies ahead. It’s a dilemma Meshell Ndegeocello was thinking through at her dining room table in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, on a recent afternoon.

Ndegeocello happens to be much more than merely a good musician. She’s been playing professionally since the early 1990s and, at 55, is about to release her 14th album, a collection of songs that excites her. The past — the repertoire, the old stuff, the hits — can start to feel like “karaoke of myself,” she said, even if that’s never what it’s been like for us folks in the audience. Take her performances earlier this year at the Blue Note, the essential Greenwich Village jazz club.

Read Full Article on The New York Times

Meshell Ndegeocello on TKA