Minnesota musicians support new procedures for Sunday's Grammy Awards

Grammy grousing, an annual sport for music lovers, has led to significant changes in this year's nominating and voting processes.

TV bandleader Jon Batiste is the leading nominee with 11 nods, but Olivia Rodrigo is a heavy favorite to be the big winner at the 64th annual Grammy Awards Sunday in Las Vegas. The music world will soon find out if the Recording Academy made the right modifications.

Gone are the anonymous blue ribbon committees that picked the finalists in key categories. And this time, academy members could choose their preferences in just 10 rather than 15 of the 86 categories to try to ensure better-informed voters.

Several Minnesota Grammy voters welcomed the long overdue adjustments.

"It's for the better overall, especially with the elimination of the blue ribbon panel thing," said Sounds of Blackness director Gary Hines, a three-time Grammy winner who had served on an unnamed committee for the award show years ago.

Here is how the Grammy nominating process had worked since 1996: Anonymous panels of industry experts evaluated the nominees from the first round of balloting and chose the finalists.

This approach came about after Tony Bennett won album of the year for "MTV Unplugged" in 1995 over acclaimed records by Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt and Seal. Controversy ensued about making the Grammys reflect artistry, not popularity or sentimentality.

"Secret committees are definitely a little suspect," said Minneapolis singer-songwriter-playwright Jonatha Brooke, who spent six years on the board of governors for New York's Grammy chapter years ago.

How do you think little-known Jacob Collier, a British musical savant, got nominated for album of the year in 2021 even though his record never landed on any of Billboard's charts?

"Quincy Jones being his manager, did that have something to do with it? Probably," said Shoreview guitar star Cory Wong, a 2021 Grammy nominee and a friend and admirer of Collier's. "In the past, a lot of people's connections probably have something to do with how they were nominated."

In other words, the unidentified panel is fraught with potential for conflicts of interest.

So this year, the Recording Academy's voting membership — all 14,000 — helped choose the finalists simply by a "majority, peer-to-peer vote."

The new nominating process might have helped Minneapolis producer/engineer BJ Burton get a nod this year for best engineered non-classical album for Duluth indie mainstays Low's "Hey What," a rather low-wattage record against more high-profile projects by Pino Palladino and Blake Mills and, of course, Bennett and Gaga.

"That [new nominating process] probably worked in our favor 'cause I've met some of the dudes that are on the committee and they are older people who think Billie Eilish is the most cutting-edge [stuff] ever," Burton said.

Diversity issues

Okee Dokee Brothers' Joe Mailander found his Minneapolis-based group in a Grammys controversy last year because of the blue ribbon committee's choices for best children's album. The Okee Dokees, a winner in 2013, withdrew their nomination in 2021 because all the finalists were white musicians. Two other nominees also pulled out for the same reason.

Subsequently, the Okee Dokees and about 10 other children's music creators had a zoom call with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. and co-president Valeisha Butterfield Jones.

This year, all the nominees in children's music are people of color.

Moreover, the Recording Academy is making continual efforts to diversify its membership, which has been dominated by older white men. About 48% of the voters are white and 31% identify as "traditionally underrepresented communities." In the past year, Black membership is up 5%, Latin 2% and Asian 1% while voters under age 39 have increased by 2%.

Where does Kacey Musgraves fit?

The Recording Academy still has committees to determine if nominees are in the appropriate category. Wong ran into a roadblock with his project "The Golden Hour," with smooth jazz saxophonist Dave Koz. They submitted it for best large jazz ensemble album, which was defined as a group of 10 musicians or more.

Said Wong: "We had an 11-piece band. They said, 'No, because it's not a big band.' Does that mean it's actually a big band category? They moved us to contemporary instrumental album. That was a little weird. Who decided that? Can't we talk to them about it?"

At least, Minnesota voters agree that it's a good tweak to reduce the number of categories in which they can cast a ballot.

None of the five local voters checked the boxes in the allowed 10 categories.

"I voted in four," engineer/producer Burton said. "I usually just vote for my friends."

Brooke filled out her ballot in jazz, pop, production and arranging categories. Mailander spoke up in seven fields.

After spending a couple hours doing research (there are streaming links on the online ballot), Wong opined in areas he's familiar with — jazz, R&B, arranging and composing.

The Grammys may never come up with a perfect system. In fact, the Minnesota voters had other suggestions, including switching the period of eligibility from Dec. 1 to Nov. 30 instead of the current, slightly outdated Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.

Wong, a first-time voter, hopes for even more reforms.

"It's such an evolving industry," he said. "I feel like there should be a little more transparency. The Grammys are trying to figure out how to stay relevant and stay part of the zeitgeist."

In other words, the Grammy grousing will probably resume after Sunday's ceremonies.

Jon.bream@startribune.com Twitter: @jonbream 612-673-1719

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