via 2024 GRAMMYs

We are thrilled to announce that seven TKA artists have received 10 nominations for the upcoming 2024 Grammy Awards. These artists include Béla Fleck (x3), Cécile McLorin Salvant (x2), Pat Metheny, Michael Cleveland, Terence Blanchard, Tommy Emmanuel, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Bobby Rush.

The 2024 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 66th GRAMMY Awards, will air live (8:00-11:30 PM, LIVE ET/5:00-8:30 PM, LIVE PT) on the CBS Television Network and will stream on Paramount+.

Best Alternative Jazz Album

Meshell Ndegeocello – The Omnichord Real Book

Best Jazz Vocal Album

Cécile McLorin Salvant – Mélusine

Best Jazz Instrumental Album

Pat Metheny – Dream Box

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album

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

Best Bluegrass Album

Michael Cleveland – Lovin’ of the Game

Best Traditional Blues Album

Bobby Rush – All My Love for You

Best Global Music Performance

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

Best Instrumental Composition

Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer & Zakir Hussain Featuring Rakesh Chaurasia – Motion

Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals

Cécile McLorin Salvant – Fenestra

Best Opera Recording

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

Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella

The String Revolution ft. Tommy Emmanuel – Folsom Prison Blues

via Pollstar

NITO – the National Independent Talent Organization – has elected a new president, officers and added board members for the coming year. High Road Touring founder Frank Riley will pass the president’s gavel to Jack Randall, president and agent at The Kurland Agency, and exit the board after co-founding and leading the indie agents and managers advocacy and trade group that emerged from the COVID crisis in 2020.

“I’m truly honored to have been elected as the President of NITO by my colleagues and peers, many of whom are fellow NITO co-founders,” Randall says of his election as NITO president. “Stepping into this role is both humbling and exciting, especially as I follow in the footsteps of Frank Riley, whose contributions and leadership have already had an immeasurable impact on our businesses and the global live entertainment ecosystem.

“While I know I can never fill his shoes exactly; I am inspired and empowered by his legacy and committed to building on the solid foundation he helped create. Along with  Michel Vega, Matt Yasecko, Tom Chauncey, and the rest of the NITO Board, we’re proud to continue our mission as we embark on the next chapter.”

Read the full article on Pollstar

via Shorefire

American Patchwork Quartet (APQ) are on a mission to reclaim the immigrant soul of roots music. Bringing unique perspectives from throughout the country’s cross-cultural landscape, APQ comes from two-time GRAMMY winner Clay Ross (Best Regional Roots Album; 2020 and 2022), GRAMMY-winning vocalist Falu (the first female singer-songwriter from India to win the award), go-to jazz bassist Yasushi Nakamura (Cecile McLorin Salvant, Joe Lovano, Kurt Elling) and drummer Clarence Penn (whose played on two GRAMMY-winning records, won a Juno Award and was mentored by Ellis Marsalis). Together they celebrate America’s musical traditions, while taking a fresh look at what it means to be “traditionally American” in the first place. On the group’s upcoming self-titled debut album (out February 9), they reinterpret folk songs synonymous with the American experience by incorporating their own American voices – which, in many cases, are voices that wouldn’t have been incorporated when these centuries-old songs were first popularized.

Today, they have shared the first look at American Patchwork Quartet via their version of “Beneath The Willow” – featuring singing from Falu, an eleventh-generation classical Hindustani vocalist who immigrated to the US as a young person. Listening to Falu’s traditional Indian vocal work enrich a Southern folk classic – known for versions by The Carter Family, Woody Guthrie and Doc Watson – truly brings the project’s mission to the forefront.

Read the Full Article on Shorefire

American Patchwork Quartet on TKA

via PBS

GRAMMY-nominated and National Heritage Fellowship honoree Cedric Burnside‘s episode of The Caverns Sessions started airing on PBS stations. The full episode will be available from October 25th, 2023, to November 22nd, 2023 on the PBS website and PBS app.

Cedric Burnside is a 3rd-generation Blues Man: son of Blues drummer Calvin Jackson and raised in the Mississippi home of his blues singer/guitarist grandfather, R. L. Burnside. Proudly carrying the mantle of Mississippi Hill Country Blues around the world, Burnside’s songs deliver bruised but unfettered truth.

Watch Full Episode on PBS

Cedric Burnside on TKA

via Forbes Africa

At the age of 88, South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim’s music is as vital, creative and important as ever. The Germany-based composer, looking forward to the release of his latest album next year, shares more in this exclusive interview with FORBES AFRICA.

A gentle breeze plays with fresh soft green leaves in the early morning hush, clear notes float in the air as the maestro moves his fingers over the keys, conjuring moods and emotions. No matter the time of day, Abdullah Ibrahim has the power to transport me from the mundane world to one of music and dreams.

He lives in a little village south of Munich in Germany these days, his base between performances on concert stages which for the next few months will be in Finland, Germany, various cities in the United States, Canada, and France.

“This is what we do best as musicians, to be on the road and take our music to the people because it is virtually impossible for everybody to come to where we are,” he says on a Zoom call, looking at his partner Marina Umari, who is a medical doctor. “So this is part of our synergy in life. We travel, we take concerts globally. Of course Marina is really the anchor. She does all the behind-the-scenes work and presentation until the time that I get on stage.”

Read the full article at Forbes Africa

Abdullah Ibrahim on TKA

via KPBS

Premieres Friday, Sept. 29, 2023 at 8 p.m. on KPBS 2 / PBS App

Celebrate the recipients of the 36th annual Hispanic Heritage Awards. The evening commemorating Hispanic Heritage Month includes performances and appearances by some of the country’s most celebrated Hispanic artists and visionaries.

The 36th Annual Hispanic Heritage Awards, hosted by Leslie Grace (“In the Heights”), premieres Friday, September 29. The awards, created by the White House to commemorate the establishment of Hispanic Heritage Month, are among the highest honors by Latinos for Latinos and are supported by 40 national Hispanic-serving institutions. The awards ceremony was held and taped for broadcast on Thursday, September 7, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. 2023 marks the ninth consecutive year the awards have been presented on PBS.

Acclaimed Dominican American singer, songwriter and actress Leslie Grace will also perform, with additional musical performances by honorees Omar Apollo and Café Tacvba, a special return performance by Alejandra Guzman, and a special centennial tribute to the legendary Tito Puente featuring Tito Puente, Jr., Milly Quezada, Alec Cuba and Pedrito Martínez.

Read full article on KPBS

Pedrito Martínez on TKA

via The Hollywood Times

“I am a jazz singer, that’s in my blood. I thought an art form was dying and chose to dedicate myself to it.”
— Dee Dee Bridgewater on Returning to Her Roots as a Jazz Singer

Although nobody was smoking cigarettes, pouring red wine from decanters, or sipping whiskey from highball glasses at Royce Hall on Friday night, it felt like all this and more should be happening. After all, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Bill Charlap transported the audience back to the jazz age of Duke Ellington and Cole Porter when the music was wild, and the people were refined.

Indeed, it was a magical night of music that is so rarely heard, and it felt a bit like watching a fading flower, wanting desperately to capture its beauty and hold onto it forever. The Center for the Art of Performance UCLA (CAP UCLA) remains one of the bastions of championing the finest cultural offerings in Los Angeles.

Read full article on The Hollywood Times

Dee Dee Bridgewater on TKA

Bill Charlap on TKA