And the GRAMMY nominees are…

For those who like to compare their year’s “Top 10” recordings list with the music industry machine at large, the nominations for the 47th Annual GRAMMY® Awards were released today. Take a break from the blue state/red state comparison editorials and see what jazz and classical-type albums are up for honors. A few of the… Read more »

Written By

Molly Sheridan

For those who like to compare their year’s “Top 10” recordings list with the music industry machine at large, the nominations for the 47th Annual GRAMMY^® Awards were released today. Take a break from the blue state/red state comparison editorials and see what jazz and classical-type albums are up for honors. A few of the nominees are highlighted here, but you can find the complete list on the GRAMMY website.

For Best Classical Album, recordings featuring John Adams’s On The Transmigration Of Souls(Lorin Maazel; Brooklyn Youth Chorus & New York Choral Artists; New York Philharmonic); Elliott Carter’s Symphony No. 1/ Piano Concerto/Holiday Overture; and Jennifer Higdon’s City Scape/Concerto For Orchestra (Robert Spano; Atlanta Symphony Orchestra) will compete against Britten and Mozart. The Adams and Higdon discs are in the running for Best Orchestral Performance, and also earned the composers nominations for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Andre Previn is also up in the later category for his Violin Concerto “Anne-Sophie.”

John Adams may just become a household name by the time this is over. He also got a nod in the Best Chamber Music Performance category or the Nonesuch recording of Road Movies featuring Leila Josefowicz, violin and John Novacek, piano as well as a nomination for Best Long Form Music Video for the London Symphony Orchestra production of The Death Of Klinghoffer.

The Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance with Orchestra nominees include pianist Mark Wait for his performance with Nashville Symphony Orchestra of Carter’s Piano Concerto and Anne-Sophie Mutter with the Boston and London Symphony Orchestras led by André Previn in performances of his Violin Concerto “Anne-Sophie” and Bernstein’s Serenade.

Among the nominees for Classical Producer Of The Year, David Frost is a standout for his work with contemporary composers. Higdon-disc engineer Jack Renner has also been singled out.

No recordings of new American work were selected in the Best Opera Recording or Best Choral Performance categories.

Stephen Sondheim will vie against the composers/lyricists of Broadway hits Assassins, Avenue Q, The Boy From Oz, Wicked, and Wonderful Town for the Best Musical Show Album. Jon Brion as well as usual suspects Thomas Newman, Danny Elfman, John Williams, and Howard Shore, will compete based on recent work in the Best Score Soundtrack Album For A Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media category.

Bucking the industry, Maria Schneider’s web-only ArtistShare release, Concert In The Garden is among the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album nominees. Schneider will compete against herself in the Best Instrumental Composition—both “Bulería, Soleá Y Rumba” and “Three Romances” have been nominated.

Alan Broadbent, Don Byron, Herbie Hancock, Donny McCaslin, and John Scofield will compete for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo. Bill Charlap Trio, Roy Haynes, Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock & Jack DeJohnette Trio, Branford Marsalis Quartet, and McCoy Tyner (With Gary Bartz, Terence Blanchard, Christian McBride & Lewis Nash) will duke it out for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group.

The awards are for recordings released during the eligibility year October 1, 2003 through September 30, 2004. The winners will be announced on February 13, 2005.