Here’s why: Detroit-related releases are up for not one, not 10,but 30 awards, give or take. That includes the more high-profile hit-makers such as Eminem, who’s up for an unprecedented 10 awards, including Album of the Year (Recovery), Record of the Year (“Love the Way You Lie”)
Crooner Kem is up for two Grammys: Best Male R&B Vocal Performance
“Why Would You Stay” and Best R&B Song (“Why Would You Stay”).
Soul belter Bettye LaVette is up for Best Contemporary Blues Album for Interpretations for The British Rock
Songbook. a
Of the more under-the-radar nominees, Ann Arbor’s Michael Daugherty is up for five Grammys, including Best Classical Album. The 56-year-old Daugherty, according to his official University of Michigan biography, is one of the 10 most performed living American composers, and studied at the University of North Texas, Manhattan School of Music, Pierre Boulez’s IRCAM in Paris and Yale, where he received a doctorate in 1986. His teachers over the years have included Earle Brown, Roger Reynolds and György Ligeti, and he collaborated with jazz arranger Gil Evans, before joining the U-M faculty in 1991.
— Best Classical Contemporary Composition
Michael Daugherty: “Deus Ex Machina” Song from: Daugherty: Metropolis Symphony
— Best Classical Album
Michael Daugherty: Metropolis Symphony
— Best Orchestral Performance
Award to the Conductor and to the Orchestra.
Michael Daugherty: Metropolis Symphony, "Deus Ex Machina"
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor (Terrence Wilson; Nashville Symphony)
— Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)
Award to the Instrumental Soloist(s) and to the Conductor.
Michael Daugherty: “Deus Ex Machina”
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor; Terrence Wilson (Nashville Symphony)
Song from: Daugherty: Metropolis Symphony
— Best Engineered Album, Classical
An Engineer’s Award.
Michael Daugherty: Metropolis Symphony
Mark Donahue, John Hill & Dirk Sobotka, engineers (Giancarlo Guerrero &
Nashville Symphony Orchestra)
The greater Detroit area figures into the following nominations:
— Producer of the Year, Classical
David Frost
— Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)
John McLaughlin Williams, conductor; Eliesha Nelson (Northwest Sinfonia). Song from: Porter, Quincy: Complete Viola Works
-- Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals.
“You’ve Got A Friend”
Ronald Isley & Aretha Franklin
— Best Jazz Vocal Album
Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee
Dee Dee Bridgewater
(Born Denise Eileen Garrett in Memphis, Tennessee, she grew up in Flint, Michigan.)
— Best Improvised Jazz Solo
“Lonely Woman”
Hank Jones, soloist
Song from: Pleased To Meet You
— Best Gospel Performance
“Grace”
BeBe & CeCe Winans
Song from: Still
— Best Traditional Gospel Album
All In One
Karen Clark Sheard
— Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album
Love Unstoppable
Fred Hammond
&
Still
BeBe & CeCe Winans
— Best Male R&B Vocal Performance
For a solo vocal performance. Song only.
“Second Chance”
El DeBarge
— Best R&B Song
“Second Chance”
E. Debarge & Mischke, songwriters (El DeBarge)
(You’ll note that El DeBarge was born in Detroit but raised in Grand Rapids from around age 10
)
