The big bands are back

in a new and exciting way

bandleader-pianist Count Basie [ r. ] with author-historian George T. Simon in 1981

photo by Chuck Pulin

GRAMMY AWARDS

listing compiled by Music Librarian Christopher Popa

   Similar to the idea of the Oscar or Emmy Award for motion pictures, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) began giving Grammy Awards in 1958 to “recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry.”

    The gold-plated trophies depict a gilded gramophone.

    Only the actual winners, not all nominees, are listed below.

    For example, the 1959 Glenn Miller set “For the Very First Time” was nominated for a Grammy in the “Best Performance By a Dance Band” category, but did not win. 

    Artie Shaw received two Grammy nominations in 2002 for his 6-CD boxed set “Artie Shaw: Self-Portrait,” one as “Best Historical Album” and the other for “Best Album Notes,” which he wrote.

    “I asked the record company about these nominations,” Shaw told a reporter.  “Is this a good thing?  They said, ‘Oh, it’s a very good thing.’  They were excited about it.  I said, ‘Good -- Maybe it’ll sell some records.’”

    But Shaw did not win either award.

   

Louis Armstrong

Best Vocal Performance, Male: Hello, Dolly!, 1964

Best Album Notes: "Louis Armstrong – Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man

  1923-1934 [ album ]," 1994

Best Historical Album: Louis Armstrong – The Complete Hot Five and Seven

  Recordings [ album ]," 2000   Phil Schaap, Seth Rothstein & Steve Berkowitz,

  compilation producers / Andreas Meyer, Ken Robertson, Mark Wilder, Michael

  Brooks, Phil Schaap, Seth Foster, Tom Ruff & Woody Pornpitaksuk, mastering

  Engineers

Best Album Notes: "The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935-1946)

  [ album ]," 2009   Dan Morgenstern, album notes writer

Count Basie

Best Performance By a Dance Band: "Basie [ album ]," 1958

Best Jazz Performance, Group: "Basie [ album ]," 1958

Best Performance By a Band for Dancing: "Dance with Basie [ album ]," 1960

Best Instrumental Arrangement: I Can’t Stop Loving You, 1963   arranged by

  Quincy Jones

Best Performance By An Orchestra – for Dancing: "This Time By Basie! Hits of

  the 50’s and 60’s [ album ]," 1963

Best Jazz Performance By a Soloist (Instrumentalist): "Basie and Zoot [ album ],"

  1976

Best Jazz Performance By a Big Band: "Prime Time [ album ]," 1977

Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band: "On the Road [ album ]," 1980

Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female: "A Perfect Match – Ella and Basie

  [ album ]," 1980   with Ella Fitzgerald vocal

Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band: "Warm Breeze [ album ]," 1982

Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Big Band: "88 Basie Street [ album ]," 1984

Count Basie Orchestra directed by Frank Foster

Best Jazz Vocal Performance, female: "Diane Schuur & The Count Basie Orchestra

  [ album ]," 1987   with Diane Schuur vocal

Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band: "Basie’s Bag [ album ]," 1990

Count Basie Orchestra directed by Grover Mitchell

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance: "Count Plays Duke [ album ]," 1990

Bunny Berigan

Best Album Notes: "Bunny Berigan – Giants of Jazz [ album ]," 1982   John

  Chilton & Richard M. Sudhalter, album notes writers

Sonny Burke

Album of the Year: "September of My Years [ album ]," 1965   with Frank Sinatra

  Vocal   [ Sonny Burke was the producer ]

Album of the Year: "Sinatra: A Man and His Music [ album ]," 1966   with Frank

  Sinatra vocal   [ Sonny Burke was the producer ]

Benny Carter

“Best Jazz Instrumental Solo: "Prelude to a Kiss [ album ]," 1994

Tommy Dorsey

Best Historical Album: "The Dorsey  / Sinatra Sessions Vols. 1, 2 & 3 [ albums ]," 1982

  Alan Dell, Don Wardell & Ethel Gabriel, producers

Duke Ellington

Best Musical Composition First Recorded and Released in 1959 (More Than Five

  Minutes Duration): "Anatomy of a Murder [ album ]," 1959

Best Performance By a Dance Band: "Anatomy of a Murder [ album ]," 1959

Best Soundtrack Album – Background Score From a Motion Picture Or Television:

  "Anatomy of a Murder [ album ]," 1959

Best Album Notes: "The Ellington Era [ album ]," 1963   Leonard Feather & Stanley

  Dance, album notes writers

Best Instrumental Jazz Performance – Large Group Or Soloist with Large Group:

  "Ellington ’66," 1965

Best Original Jazz Composition: In the Beginning God, 1966

Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Large Group Or Soloist with Large Group:

  "Far East Suite [ album ]," 1967

Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Large Group Or Soloist with Large Group:

  "And His Mother Called Him Bill [ album ]," 1968

Best Jazz Performance By a Big Band: "New Orleans Suite [ album ]," 1971

Best Jazz Performance By a Big Band: "Togo Brava Suite [ album ]," 1972

Best Jazz Performance By a Big Band: "The Ellington Suites [ album ]," 1976

Best Instrumental Performance, Big Band: "Duke Ellington At Fargo, 1940 Live

  [ album ]," 1979

Best Historical Album: "The Duke Ellington Centennial Collection – The Complete RCA

  Victor Recordings 1927-1973 [ album ]," 1999   Orrin Keepnews & Steven Lasker,

  compilation producers / Dennis Ferrante, Paul Brizzi & Steven Lasker, mastering

  engineers

Duke Ellington Orchestra directed by Mercer Ellington

Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band: "Digital Duke [ album ]," 1987

Dizzy Gillespie

Best Jazz Performance By a Soloist: "Oscar Peterson and Dizzy Gillespie [ album ],"

  1975

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance: "Live At the Royal Festival Hall [ album ],"

  1991

Coleman Hawkins

Best Album Notes: "The Hawk Flies [ album ]," 1974   Dan Morgenstern, liner notes

  writer   [ NOTE: tie ]

Neal Hefti

Best Instrumental Theme: Batman Theme, 1966

Woody Herman

Best Instrumental Jazz Performance – Large Group: "Encore: Woody Herman,

  1963 [ album ]," 1963

Best Jazz Performance By a Big Band: "Giant Steps [ album ]," 1973

Best Jazz Performance By a Big Band: "Thundering Herd [ album ]," 1974

Best Album Notes: "The Complete Columbia Recordings of Woody Herman and His

  Orchestra & Woodchoppers (1945-1947) [ album ]," 2004   Loren Schoenberg, liner

  notes writer

Stan Kenton

Best Jazz Performance – Large Group (Instrumental): "West Side Story [ album ],"

  1961

Best Jazz Performance – Large Group (Instrumental): "Adventures in Jazz [ album ],"

  1962

Billy May

Best Performance By An Orchestra: "Billy May’s Big Fat Brass [ album ]," 1958

Album of the Year: "Come Dance with Me [ album ]," 1959   with Frank Sinatra vocal

Best Arrangement: Come Dance with Me, 1959   for Frank Sinatra vocal

Best Vocal Performance, Male: Come Dance with Me, 1959   with Frank Sinatra vocal

Louis Prima

Best Performance By a Vocal Group Or Chorus: That Old Black Magic, 1958

  with Keely Smith

Fats Waller

Best Album Notes: "Fats Waller & His Rhythm – If You Got to Ask, You Ain’t Got It!

  [ album ]," 2006   Dan Morgenstern, liner notes writer

Paul Weston

Best Comedy Performance (Musical): "Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris

  [ album ]," 1960   with Jo Stafford vocal

Si Zentner

Best Performance By a Chorus: "Great Band with Great Voices [ album ]," 1961

  with The Johnny Mann Singers

Best Performance By An Orchestra – for Dancing: Up a Lazy River, 1961

GRAMMY HALL OF FAME

    The Grammy Hall of Fame was established in 1973 “to honor recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old.  Inductees are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of the recording arts.” 

    I am pleased that the big bands are well-represented among the recipients.

    In fact, it was former bandleader Paul Weston, the Academy’s first Chairman / President, who explained that the Hall of Fame would honor not actual individuals, but “the recordings themselves.”   

    All titles below are singles, unless indicated as an album. 

    The year shown is the year that the recording was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Louis Armstrong

West End Blues – 1974

Mack the Knife – 1997

Heebie Jeebies – 1999

What a Wonderful World – 1999

Hello, Dolly! – 2001

“Porgy and Bess” [ album ] – 2001   with Ella Fitzgerald

All of Me – 2005

St. Louis Blues – 2008

Weather Bird – 2008   with Earl Hines

Star Dust – 2009

Lazy River – 2010

“Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy” [ album ] – 2010

Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen – 2014

Charlie Barnet

Cherokee – 1998

Count Basie

One o’Clock Jump – 1979

April in Paris – 1985

Everyday I Have the Blues – 1992

Lester Leaps In – 2005

“Ella and Basie!” [ album ] – 2010   with Ella Fitzgerald vocal

Bunny Berigan

I Can’t Get Started – 1975

Les Brown

Sentimental Journey – 1998

Cab Calloway

Minnie the Moocher – 1999

Jimmy Dorsey

Brazil – 2009

Tommy Dorsey

I’ll Never Smile Again – 1982

I’m Getting Sentimental Over You – 1998

Marie – 1998

Billy Eckstine

I Apologize – 1999

Duke Ellington

Mood Indigo – 1975

Take the “A” Train – 1976

Black and Tan Fantasy – 1981

Black, Brown and Beige – 1990

Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue – 1999

“Far East Suite” [ album ] – 1999

“Ellington At Newport” [ album ] – 2004

Cocktails for Two – 2007

It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) – 2008

Caravan – 2009

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore – 2010

Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me – 2011

Ko-Ko – 2011

Dizzy Gillespie

Manteca – 1999

Groovin’ High – 2000

A Night  in Tunisia – 2004

Benny Goodman

“Carnegie Hall Concert” [ album ] – 1975

Sing, Sing, Sing (with a Swing) – 1982

And the Angels Sing – 1987

Moonglow – 1998

King Porter Stomp – 2008

Seven Come Eleven – 2008

Lionel Hampton

Flying Home – 1996

Coleman Hawkins

Body and Soul – 1974

Woody Herman

Four Brothers – 1984

Early Autumn – 2000

Woodchopper’s Ball – 2002

Earl Hines

see “Armstrong, Louis” in 2008

Harry James

Trumpet Blues and Cantabile – 1999

You Made Me Love You – 2010

Isham Jones

California, Here I Come – 2005   featuring Al Jolson vocal

It Had to Be You – 2007

Spike Jones

Cocktails for Two – 1995

(All I Want for Christmas Is) My Two Front Teeth – 2007

Louis Jordan

Caldonia Boogie – 1998

Choo Choo Ch’Boogie – 2008

Let the Good Times Roll – 2009

Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens – 2013

Stan Kenton

Artistry in Rhythm – 1985

Jimmie Lunceford

For Dancers Only – 1999

Billy May

“Come Fly with Me” [ album ] - 2004   featuring Frank Sinatra vocal

Glenn Miller

In the Mood – 1983

Moonlight Serenade – 1991

Chattanooga Choo Choo – 1996

Ray Noble

The Very Thought of You – 2005

Louis Prima

“The Wildest” [ album ] – 1999   with Keely Smith

Artie Shaw

Begin the Beguine – 1977

Star Dust – 1988

Frenesi – 2000

Any Old Time – 2001

Fats Waller

Ain’t Misbehavin’ – 1984

Honeysuckle Rose – 1999

Chick Webb

A-Tisket, A-Tasket – 1986

Paul Weston

You Belong to Me – 1998   with Jo Stafford vocal

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah – 2010   with Johnny Mercer and The Pied Pipers vocal

Paul Whiteman

Rhapsody in Blue – 1974   featuring George Gershwin piano

Whispering – 1998

Ol’ Man River – 2006   featuring Paul Robeson vocal

GRAMMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

    The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards, a special “merit award,” is given to performers who, during their lifetimes, “have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording.”

Louis Armstrong – 1972

Count Basie – 2002

Cab Calloway – 2008

Benny Carter – 1987

Duke Ellington – 1966

Dizzy Gillespie – 1989

Benny Goodman – 1986

Woody Herman – 1987

Glenn Miller – 2003

Artie Shaw – 2004

Fats Waller – 1993

GRAMMY TRUSTEES AWARDS

    Another “special merit award,” the Trustees’ Award, is given by the Recording Academy’s National Trustees following a vote to select individuals, “who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording.”  (Performers were included through 1983.)

Count Basie, 1981

Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn, 1968

George T. Simon, 1993

Paul Weston, 1971

sources:

Grammy.com.  Retrieved 27 May 2014.

Grammy.org.  Retrieved 25 May 2014.

Tom Nolan.  "Star Dust Still Falls On Artie Shaw," The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 20, 2003.

  

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