The Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance , in German "Grammy Award for the best jazz fusion performance", is a music prize that was awarded from 1980 to 1991 at the annual Grammy Awards . Musicians or bands were honored for particularly high-quality works from the jazz fusion segment .
The Grammy Awards (actually Grammophone Awards), which have been presented since 1958, are presented annually in numerous categories by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) in the United States of America for artistic achievement, technical competence and excellent overall performance regardless of the album - Honor sales or chart position.
The Grammy for Jazz Fusion was first given at the 22nd Grammy Awards in 1980 as the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Vocal or Instrumental to the jazz band Weather Report for the album 8:30 . At the 30th Grammy Awards in 1988, the prize was renamed Best Jazz Fusion Performance and moved to a newly created field for fusion music.
The prize was awarded for the last time in 1991. It was discontinued in 1992 with the introduction of the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Performance (awarded until 2011 as the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album ) and a major restructuring in the jazz sector. This restructuring, which also included the amalgamation of the Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female , Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Male and Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group into a common category Best Jazz Vocal Performance , did not go uncritically. The American jazz critic and journalist Leonard Feather wrote an article in the Los Angeles Times in 1992 under the title "JAZZ: Message to Grammy: A Little RESPECT, Please", in which he strongly criticized the new categories. Explicitly on the change from "jazz fusion" to the new category for "contemporary jazz" he wrote:
“The category best contemporary jazz performance is another anomaly. By and large, it is supposed to represent jazz-fusion – it was known as 'best jazz-fusion performance' before being changed this year – though the nominations of singer Bobby McFerrin and Manhattan Transfer would hardly seem to fit into that slot. Since all currently performed jazz is ipso facto 'contemporary,' this category should be abolished. "
“The 'Best Contemporary Jazz Performance' category is another anomaly. By and large, it's supposed to be jazz fusion - it was known as 'Best Jazz Fusion Performance' before it was changed this year - although singers Bobby McFerrin and Manhattan Transfer nominations barely fit that position. Since all jazz currently being produced is ipso facto 'contemporary', this category should be abolished. "
- Leonard Feather, 1992
statistics
Spyro Gyra at a concert in 2009. The band was nominated six times without ever winning a Grammy.
The Grammy was awarded only eleven times. Pat Metheny won it a total of five times in this category, the record for most awards in this category, four times with the Pat Metheny Group . With seven nominations he is also the artist with the most nominations, whereby he was nominated for five consecutive years from 1981 to 1985. With two awards, David Sanborn is the only artist to have received the award more than once. The Spyro Gyra group was nominated six times, but never won the award. In 1990 Terri Lyne Carrington was the first and, until the award was discontinued, the only woman to be nominated as a soloist.
↑ “ honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position ” Overview . National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences . Retrieved February 14, 2012.
