The 2025 GRAMMYs season is in full swing. The 2025 GRAMMY nominations have been officially announced, leading up to Music’s Biggest Night.

The main event: The 2025 GRAMMY Awards, officially known as the 67th GRAMMY Awards, will take place live at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb.2, broadcasting live on the CBS Television Network and streaming live and on demand on Paramount+. 

Before the awards, Final Round Voting will take place from Dec. 12, 2024 to Jan. 3, 2025. The Recording Academy’s Voting Members, composed of music creators, including artists, producers, songwriters, and engineers determine the GRAMMY winners across all categories revealed on GRAMMY night. This thorough process underscores the integrity of the GRAMMY Awards as music’s only industry-recognized, peer-voted honor.

Category 30 – Best Jazz Performance

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The Charleston Gaillard Center is proud to present the Carolinas Together Hurricane Relief Concert on Sunday, November 3. This special event will showcase some of the South’s most celebrated artists, including Shovels & Rope, Ranky Tanky, Charlton Singleton & Friends, Quiana Parler, Elise Testone, Asiah Mae, Marcus Amaker, and more to be announced. All proceeds from the concert will benefit the North Carolina Arts Foundation’s NC Arts Disaster Relief Fund, providing critical financial support to artists and arts organizations in Western North Carolina, starting with basic necessities and eventually helping to rebuild the region’s arts community.

To further generate support at this event, representatives from other Charleston institutions—including Charleston Stage, The Citadel, Palmetto City Ballet, and College of Charleston, among others—will be present, offering additional opportunities to support their institution’s fundraising efforts. Their participation reinforces the unified commitment of Charleston’s arts community to maximize the impact of this relief initiative.

As a city deeply familiar with the impact of hurricanes and weather-related disasters, Charleston understands the importance of coming together to support those in need. Lowcountry Arts for WNC was formed as a collaborative effort by Charleston-area arts organizations to harness the city’s diverse artistic platforms and raise funds for hurricane relief in Western North Carolina. Through initiatives like the Carolinas Together Hurricane Relief Concert, the collective taps into the strength of Charleston’s vibrant arts community to maximize support for recovery efforts.

“This concert reflects our community’s deep understanding of the devastation hurricanes can cause, and we are honored to partner with these incredible artists and Lowcountry Arts for WNC to make a meaningful difference for our neighbors,” said Lissa Frenkel, President & CEO of the Charleston Gaillard Center. “We are proud to be facilitating these efforts alongside other institutions in Charleston to make the greatest possible impact.”

Charlton Singleton, who is supporting the Gaillard Center’s artistic team in programming this benefit concert, added, “The artists involved in this concert have all performed in and around the impacted areas countless times, and the residents of these Western North Carolina communities have supported our careers for years. It was an easy decision for us to lend our talents in support during their time of need.”

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Ranky Tanky on TKA

The Boston bluegrass quartet expands its sound on its third LP with a heady brew of jazz, Americana and indie pop music

via Seven Days

You know, music just doesn’t make people act like assholes like it used to. And honestly, I miss that. Hear me out.

Not so long ago, pop music legitimately scared some people shitless because they thought it would turn kids to drugs, sex and/or Satan. Music was dangerous. Did I like the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC, if you’re nasty) trying to censor all the coolest rock and hip-hop in the ’80s and ’90s? No, of course not. But I miss the hoopla. The hoopla!

In a perfect world, Twisted Pine’s new LP, Love Your Mind, would have folk and bluegrass aficionados bare-knuckle brawling in the street. They’d smash banjos over each other’s skulls in fierce debate about the stylistic joyride that is the Boston band’s third album, like when Dylan went electric or Metallica, uh … cut their hair.

Originally a fairly straightforward bluegrass band, Twisted Pine grew out of the Boston folk scene that centered on the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge. Over the past decade, the quartet has steadily morphed into something altogether different. Its 2020 album Right Now was lauded by outlets such as the Boston Globe, NPR and No Depression for its fusion of contemporary sounds and traditional roots music. Love Your Mind delves deeper still into jazz and swing, indie pop, AM Gold funk, and even a Frank Zappa cover.

The album kicks off with the sun-dappled “Start/Stop,” a pop song where instrumental virtuosity and group vocal heroics work together in beautiful and subtle unison.

On “Goosebump Feeling,” flautist Anh Phung’s silky lead vocals and fiddler Kathleen Parks’ harmonies orbit Dan Bui’s percussive mandolin stabs above the bedrock of Chris Sartori’s bass line. The band turns sharply from that track’s breezy, dance-inducing pop rhythms to the sinewy R&B groove of “Chanel Perfume,” featuring former Boston singer-songwriter Ali McGuirk, who now lives in Burlington. A few songs later is a playful mix of progressive bluegrass and ’60s soul-pop on “Green Flash,” highlighted by a scintillating guest appearance from dobro master Jerry Douglas of Alison Krauss & Union Station.

That Twisted Pine’s sonic-chameleon act is realized through acoustic instruments might be the album’s greatest achievement. Top-notch production from Dan Cardinal at Dimension Sound Studios adds a glossy sheen that lets the soft moments breathe, the hooks (and Parks’ powerful vocals) get big and, even better, adds just the right touch of weird when needed.

Love Your Mind is Frankenstein folk. Once upon a time the villagers might have gone scampering after Twisted Pine with pitchforks and torches for their brazen subversion of genre. But these days, I think the band will be safe and sound as it tours behind the new record. Upcoming gigs include a show at Zenbarn in Waterbury Center this Saturday, October 19, and at the Billsville House Concerts series in Manchester Center on Sunday, October 20.

Love Your Mind will be released on Friday, October 18. Buy it at twisted-pine.bandcamp.com or stream it on all major streaming services.

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Twisted Pine on TKA

via Aire Flamenco

Jesse Cook, the most successful flamenco guitarist in the world today, begins one of his regular international tours in Spain for the first time.

After selling more than a million tickets worldwide and surpassing 600,000 streams on Spotify, the most successful flamenco guitarist in the world today will finally arrive in Spain to begin his new European tour. The first concert will be on September 18 at the Sala Villanos in Madrid, followed by performances in Bilbao (Kafe Antzokia, September 19) and Seville (Sala Custom, September 20).

After its long-awaited premiere in Spain, the European tour will continue in Milan (September 22), Dublin (September 23), Arles (September 26), Paris (September 27), Manchester (September 29), Liverpool (September 30) and Coventry (October 3).

Then, on November 7th, he will begin his usual tour throughout the United States and Canada, more than fifty concerts until May 2025, with all tickets already on sale on his official website, www.jessecook.com

Canadian guitarist and Juno Award winner Jesse Cook has built a successful career spanning over twenty-five years. With ten platinum and gold albums since his debut with Tempest in 1995, Cook has been the recipient of multiple awards, including Acoustic Guitar’s prestigious Player’s Choice Silver Award. In addition to being a guitar virtuoso, Cook is a composer, producer, arranger, filmmaker and cultural ambassador. Jesse Cook weaves a musical tapestry that blends flamenco with new age, jazz and easy listening, creating a unique sound that has captivated audiences globally.

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Jesse Cook on TKA

via Downbeat November print edition

A diverse mix of styles and impulses are emitted on Embracing Dawn, pianist and composer Christian Sands’ extremely impressive latest recording. Sands and crew offer a grab bag of flavors: gospel-tinged overtures, gutbucket soul, slick hard-bop licks or heavily laced funk, as on “MMC” means “Mom’s mac and cheese,” but it could well be “Mulgrew and McCoy” given the acceleration and propulsive ostinato. There is also a bit of ambiguity to “Embracing Dawn,” which can be construed as a lover or the break of day; either way, an explosive sound emerges and it’s pointless to separate Marvin Sewell’s guitar from Warren Wolf’s vibraphone or Gregoire Maret’s harmonica: it’s just a glorious concoction of feeling.

“Thought Bubbles” comes in two parts: the first, Sands’ piano asking “Can We Talk?” and the second, lively harmonic responses from drummer Ryan Sands and bassist Yasushi Nakamura. Sands’ versatility and imaginative flights are pervasive on “Divergent Journeys.” He has an intuitive way of meshing a variety of musical formats in a singular mode, never losing that tendency to swing.

And when the temptation to swing is subdued and the ensemble decides on a reflective motif, as they do on “Braises de Requiem I (The Embers Requiem, Mov. I),” it’s merely another example of how adept Sands and his group are at presenting a full complement of orchestrals colors and moods.

– Herb Boyd

Christian Sands on TKA

via Forbes

Honorees—selected by jazz enthusiasts worldwide—will be inducted next month at curated performances, with special tributes, at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club in New York

Jazz at Lincoln Center has announced the 2024 inductees into its Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame.

They are composer, pianist and bandleader Dave Brubeck; drummer and bandleader Kenny Clarke; alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson; trumpeter Kenny Dorham; drummer Roy Haynes; singer and songwriter Sheila Jordan; and bandleader, arranger and composer of salsa and Latin jazz Eddie Palmieri.

The honorees will be inducted at curated performances and through moving tributes at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club in New York from October 15 to 17 and on October 30. Performers and presenters scheduled to appear include Jaleel Shaw, John Patitucci, Christian McBride, Chris Brubeck, Roni Ben Hur, Gabriela Palmieri and Marcus Gilmore.

Each honoree was selected from a pool of nominees who had received a high volume of votes from jazz enthusiasts worldwide in previous years.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame induction ceremony schedule will include the following concerts:

Celebrating Roy Haynes, at 7:00 p.m. October 15, and featuring Jaleel Shaw, saxophone; Dave Kikoski, piano; John Patitucci, bass; and Marcus Gilmore, drums. Haynes will be inducted into the EJHF by musician, recording artist and educator Christian McBride.

Honoring Eddie Palmieri at 9:30 p.m. on October 17, featuring Conrad Herwig, trombone; Zaccai Curtis, piano; Luques Curtis, bass; and Camilo Molina, drums. Palmieri will be inducted into the EJHF by his daughter, Gabriela Palmieri.

The Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame was founded in 2004 and is located in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s home in Manhattan. It is named after the late Nesuhi Ertegun, Atlantic Records partner; his brother, Ahmet, co-founded the company. The Hall of Fame’s first class of inductees included Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Bix Beiderbecke, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Jelly Roll Morton, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum and Lester Young.

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Eddie Palmieri on TKA

Roy Haynes on TKA

via NPR

NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe talks with jazz pianist Christian Sands about his latest album, “Embracing Dawn.” It’s informed by a breakup.

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

Christian Sands has been a public figure in the jazz world since his first album in 2002 when he was 12. And with his latest release, the pianist is going deep.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTIAN SANDS’ “GOOD MORNING HEARTACHE”)

RASCOE: On “Embracing Dawn,” from his first track to his last, Sands is exploring loss – in his specific case, the end of a relationship.

CHRISTIAN SANDS: I wasn’t actually trying to create this record on purpose. You know, I was going through the first real type of heartbreak that I’ve ever had in my life. And so I was trying to figure out ways to cope with it.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTIAN SANDS’ “GOOD MORNING HEARTACHE”)

SANDS: As I was writing this music, the more that I did it, the more I found myself going through the journey of coping and the journey of going through putting yourself back together. And then I also realized that I wasn’t the only person that was going through this. I thought about making a space for people that do go through this. Not even just for relationships, but I mean, it could be a loss of a job. It can be the loss of a loved one. It can be, you know, any situation where there is a major transition in your life.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTIAN SANDS’ “GOOD MORNING HEARTACHE”)

RASCOE: Well, it seems like you do go through this kind of evolution, ’cause you go through the track list. You start with “Good Morning Heartache,” but then you end with the title track, “Embracing Dawn.” But…

SANDS: Yeah.

RASCOE: …Tell me about this specific song, “Thought Bubbles I (Can We Talk?)” You know, I think a lot of people have seen those little thought bubbles in the text messages. And, you know, trying to see…

SANDS: Yeah.

RASCOE: …What are they going to say? Or then sometimes it just disappears, and you’re like, oh, they’re not going to say anything.

SANDS: Yeah. Exactly. It is literally that exact moment. You haven’t spoken in a while, and the text bubbles start coming in.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTIAN SANDS’ “THOUGHT BUBBLES I (CAN WE TALK?)”

SANDS: You don’t know if it’s going to be a good conversation or a bad conversation. You know, you have those moments where the thought bubbles – they go away.

RASCOE: Yeah.

SANDS: Or they come back. You know, the communication through the texting starts out hopeful. But then it might take a turn. You know, then it might escalate into something. And then now there’s – it’s anxiety. Now there’s all these different emotions, and then all you really want is just peace.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTIAN SANDS’ “THOUGHT BUBBLES I (CAN WE TALK?)”

SANDS: There’s tension here.

RASCOE: And that’s why it’s so kind of tentative, and the way it kind of – it feels like it’s almost starting and stopping, is to capture that that feeling.

SANDS: Yes. Exactly.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTIAN SANDS’ “THOUGHT BUBBLES I (CAN WE TALK?)”

RASCOE: You’ve been mentored by greats like Billy Taylor and Christian McBride, who were also these great ambassadors for jazz.

SANDS: Yeah.

RASCOE: So, what did you learn from them?

SANDS: The biggest lessons I’ve learned from all of them was to be honest in your music.

RASCOE: What does that mean?

SANDS: What it means is truthfully, who you are off stage is who you are on stage. You know, it’s an extension of you. With Dr. Billy Taylor, what he always stressed was always bring your audience with you. Always bring your audience on a journey. And I would actually watch him literally speak about what’s going to happen in the song. OK, the first eight bars is going to be this. The second is going to be this. And then he’d give an example, so the audience will understand what’s going to be played.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BILLY TAYLOR: So, now, what I would like to have you focus on and really listen is to how our drummer Winard Harper varies that melody.

SANDS: Now, I don’t necessarily think you have to do all of that. But he was a big educator. That is who he was. So, for me, all of my music is who I am, where I’m coming from, the stories I’ve heard, the story of my own people. I’m talking about, you know, the African American community. I’m talking about people from New England. I’m talking about – you know, there’s so many different versions of it, right? And this album is not just my experience, but the human experience of going through heartbreak in whatever form that might be.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTIAN SANDS’ “BRAISES DE REQUIEM I (THE EMBERS REQUIEM, MOV. I)”)

RASCOE: There’s another song on the album, “Embers Requiem, Mov. I.”

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTIAN SANDS’ “BRAISES DE REQUIEM I (THE EMBERS REQUIEM, MOV. I)”)

RASCOE: That’s really beautiful.

SANDS: Thank you.

RASCOE: And what did you or how did you approach composing this piece?

SANDS: So it’s a couple of different aspects of it. I actually was in that relationship that I was in, I actually started to write, and I had a very different feeling when I first started writing it. So what you actually hear is the beginning of the piece that had a certain color to it, and that it really morphs as the piece goes along. And you’re actually kind of listening to my emotions.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTIAN SANDS’ “BRAISES DE REQUIEM I (THE EMBERS REQUIEM, MOV. I)”)

SANDS: So the song really symbolizes the closing of the chapter – you know, “Embers Requiem.” I love classical music. And whenever you hear an artist, you know, talk about requiem, it’s usually a death, right? It’s usually the end of something. I’m a romantic, so I’m thinking about the fires of love. And it’s with embers, it’s not exactly the fire is gone, but it’s the small little red marks, the embers of the passion that was there. And now it’s slowly dissipating. Now it’s slowly going away, you know, but it’s also signifying peace that is coming. You know, and it’s really about the act of letting go.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTIAN SANDS’ “MMC”)

RASCOE: Has the person who you had to break up with – have they heard this album?

SANDS: (Laughter) They have not.

RASCOE: They have not. They haven’t heard the album.

SANDS: Well, they might have. I mean, they might have heard the singles that have come out.

RASCOE: So you don’t know.

SANDS: I have no idea.

RASCOE: Yeah, OK.

SANDS: (Laughter).

RASCOE: Having written and recorded these pieces, do you look at this as not really so much of a breakup album, but really more of a healing album?

SANDS: Exactly. It’s really a triumph album. It’s really about accepting of oneself. It’s about not knowing what’s going to come next, but you’re prepared, and you’re ready and you’re excited. So, you know, it’s really the process of overcoming and the process of finally getting to a place where you’re like, you know what? I made the changes that I had to, and now I am ready to move forward in my life. And the world is your oyster after that, as they say.

RASCOE: That’s jazz pianist Christian Sands. His new album is “Embracing Dawn.” Thank you so much for talking with us.

SANDS: Thank you for having me.

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Christian Sands on TKA

via The Bluegrass Situation

There’s something for everyone in this week’s premiere round-up!

From the bluegrass realm, check out a new, suitably spooky track from southwest Virginia mainstay Amanda Cook, a vocal trio number from the fellas of Sideline, and Twisted Pine have a brand new music video for a song all about bluegrass festival fun, “After Midnight (Nothing Good Happens).”

In Their Words: “Every summer, music fanatics assemble their camping gear and instruments and gather together in a field somewhere for that most peculiar of community events: the bluegrass festival. As a band, many of our formative and milestone experiences have taken place at festivals. We’ve learned a lot of lessons – good and bad. This song is our ode to the festival experience. It’s about a universal thought process that happens every night at festivals around the world, ‘Should I be trying to get some sleep right now? Or should I stay up, and pick, and see where the night takes me?’ It’s definitely a coin toss, and depending on how you feel you might regret the late night the next morning, but either way, it makes for a memorable night, and you look forward to what next year’s fest will bring

“The details of the song are based on true events and everyone’s festival vibe. Chris likes to wander around looking for hot dogs; Kathleen croons country ballads in the moonlight; Anh typically stays out until the sun comes up; Dan posts up at the center of the old-time jam on bass. And there’s always that dude at the jam trying to get laid so in our song we named him Dirty Pete.

“Shot on location at two of the very best festivals in our part of the country: the Ossipee Valley Music Festival and Green Mountain Bluegrass and Roots, ‘(Nothing Good Happens) After Midnight’ should be a familiar sentiment for BGS readers. See y’all next year!” – Twisted Pine

Track Credits:
Written by Kathleen Parks, Dan Bui, and Anh Phung.
Kathleen Parks – Lead vocals, fiddle
Chris Sartori – Bass
Dan Bui – Mandolin
Anh Phung – Flute, background vocals
Ethan Robbins – Guitar

Video Credit: Directed, filmed, and edited by Jay Strausser, Jay Strausser Visuals

Twisted Pine on TKA