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Drummer/pianist Jack DeJohnette launches aggressive international schedule

Jack DeJohnette

Following the launch of his latest critically acclaimed album, Sound Travels (released January 17 on Golden Beams/eOne), as well as being named a 2012 NEA Jazz Master in January, drummer/pianist Jack DeJohnette will continue to celebrate his landmark 70th birthday year with high profile performances, festival appearances, among other activities. 

DeJohnette recently participated in the International Jazz Day inauguration at the United Nations in New York City on April 30 with Herbie Hancock (in his role as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador), UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova, among other internationally recognized artists. 


“It was a great honor to be part of this extraordinary event. An amazing feeling to play in the UN General Assembly with my friends Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Ron Carter honoring Miles Davis, and also playing with some of my other friends,” reflects DeJohnette in a news release. “As UNESCO ambassador, Herbie has created a historic event here and is expanding the awareness of  this great art form.”

On May 9, DeJohnette will begin a West Coast tour at The Shedd in Eugene, Ore., with a trio consisting of Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke. Billed as DeJohnette’s 70th Birthday Tour, the tour serves as this trio’s debut and will also headline Jazz Alley in Seattle (May 10-13) and Catalina’s in Los Angeles (May 15-20). The same trio will return to the West Coast in September, with performances at Yoshi’s San Francisco (September 5-8), The Opera House in Napa Valley, Calif. (September 9), and The Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz, Calif. (September 10).

DeJohnette has scheduled performances at several renowned festivals in North America this summer and fall, including appearances at two of the most prominent U.S. jazz festivals. On June 28, The Jack DeJohnette Group (featuring saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, guitarist Dave “Fuze” Fiuczynski, pianist George Colligan and bassist Jerome Harris) – his working ensemble – will headline the Ottawa International Jazz Festival. On August 4, DeJohnette will headline the 2012 Newport Jazz Festival presented by Natixis Global Asset Management, performing in three different settings: with his working ensemble, his All-Star group (featuring guitarist Lionel Loueke, pianist George Colligan, bassist Christian McBride, saxophonist Tim Ries, percussionist Luisito Quintero, and trumpeter Jason Palmer) as well as a duo performance with Jason Moran. In September, DeJohnette will serve as the 55th annual Monterey Jazz Festival’s 2012 showcase artist, and will perform three times throughout the weekend (September 21-23), with his working ensemble, his Special Trio (with Pat Metheny and Christian McBride), and in duo with Bill Frisell.

Other notable appearances for DeJohnette throughout the year include participation in Pat Metheny’s five-day Summer Music Workshop beginning on August 20 as well as two European tours (in July with The Keith Jarrett Trio and in late September with his own group).

DeJohnette’s 2012 festivities will culminate with two performances: the long-awaited reunion of “The Gateway Trio,” featuring John Abercrombie and Dave Holland, at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall (a hometown performance for DeJohnette) on November 2, and a Keith Jarrett Trio performance at NJPAC in Newark, NJ on December 1.

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contemporary jazz jazz Mexico Mole music RareNoiseRecords releases United States world

Jazz quartet Mole to release ‘What’s the Meaning?’ on RareNoiseRecords label on May 15

It was nearly eight years ago that Mexican born pianist-composer Mark Aanderud joined forces with Argentinian drummer Hernan Hecht. Their chemistry was immediate and natural. 

“The first things we did were all related to free music, with electronic elements or not, but always with the idea of creating songs or forms in the moment,” says Aanderud in a news release. “We do have some incredible magic going on, inasmuch as we can play concerts or record without ever speaking of music, and never repeating ideas or stifling development. This actually hasn’t changed over the years.” 
From their initial encounter, the two kindred spirits progressed to the formation of Mole (pronounced Mo-Lay), an exhilarating quartet that is breaking new ground in its approach to contemporary jazz with their auspicious RareNoiseRecords debut, What’s The Meaning?.

“I think this project is an inevitable spot in my career,” says Hecht, who is also a member of the RareNoiseRecords band Brainkiller. “It is our version of contemporary jazz, the sum of all the things we’ve heard and experienced in our lives related to jazz and everything else we have acquired; sounds of other music, other arts, the sense of song. It’s a freedom of expression, not determined by traditional jazz or directly from any line of traditional language learning. I am interested in music that is broad, not determined by a style.”
Though both Aanderud and Hecht would cringe at the prospect of being labeled a fusion band, Moledoes indeed fuse a variety of music styles, from jazz and rock to classical, funk and hip-hop. 

“I don’t really like the fusion concept, but of course with all the groove and electronic elements in our music it’s natural to think it sounds like fusion a little bit,” says Aanderud. “But I see us more in the same line as groups like Phronesis, e.s.t. and Kurt Rosenwinkel and in terms of electronic music, groups like Sigur Rós, Massive Attack and Radiohead.”
After a few years of exploring their chemistry together, Aanderud and Hecht began inviting other musicians into their inner circle to see how it affected their music.

 “We always considered the possibility of working with more people to achieve different characters, sounds and experience new artistic possibilities,” says Hecht. “So I instigated tours and recordings with Tim Berne, Rick Parker, Eli Degibri, Jonathan Kreisberg, Marco Renteria, Aaron Cruz and many more musicians, always with the desire of novelty.”
For their super-charged What’s the Meaning?, Aanderud and Hecht recruited New York guitarist David Gilmore, whose impressive list of credits includes tours and recordings with the likes of Wayne Shorter, Trilok Gurtu, Don Byron and Steve Coleman’s Five Elements.

“When we decided to tour with someone else from New York, to have new sounds and pressure to work with someone already recognized internationally, someone from which to learn with a shared philosophy and professionalism, we automatically thought of David Gilmore,” says Hecht.
Adds Aanderud, “There is probably no other guitarist as diverse in groove, time and the free approach as him. So it was easy to know he was the one we were looking for.”
Rounding out the quartet is Mexican upright bassist Jorge “Luri” Molina, whom Aanderud met years ago in their native country. 

“I’ve known Luri since I started playing jazz music,” says the keyboardist who is currently based in Prague. “We were still kids and we were starting to dig this music. He was a very straight-ahead player but he became one of the most charismatic and strong rhythm players I know, and an incredible musician who just understands any musical situation.”

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ACT Music e.s.t. Esbjorn Svensson Trio Europe jazz jazz trio music releases Scandinavia United States world

Acclaimed e.s.t./Esbjorn Svensson Trio releases new posthumous studio album, “301,” on May 8

According to a recent news release, ACT Music announces the release of 301, a full album of previously unheard material by e.s.t. (Esbjörn Svensson Trio), available on May 8. The album is a follow up to e.s.t.‘s 2008 effort, Leucocyte, and is the group’s second album following pianist Esbjörn Svensson‘s tragic death (prior to Leucocyte‘s release). Heralded as one of the most exciting jazz bands of the decade, the seven-track album features Svensson with his longtime band mates, drummer Magnus Öström and bassist Dan Berglund.


In January 2007, e.s.t. was on tour in Asia and Australia performing shows in Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Jakarta, Perth and Sydney. It was their third tour of Japan and their second time on the continent; and the venues and audiences had become noticeably bigger. Only a few weeks before, they had finished their triumphant tour of Germany, including a legendary performance in Hamberg which resulted in Live in Hamburg (ACT, 2007), awarded “Album of the Decade” by the London Times. It was undoubtedly the prime time for the style-defining jazz band of the 2000s.


The group decided to rent the famous “Studio 301” in Sydney for their off-days in the middle of the Australian tour and jammed for two consecutive days to develop new songs and material. Altogether, they recorded nine hours of music. Leucocyte became the first release from these sessions and has been praised by critics and fans alike as a ground-breaking work that leads into a new musical universe. Very soon after the recording, Svensson had edited much of the material down to two albums. And so the plan at the time was to release either a double album or two consecutive albums from this recording. Svensson’s tragic passing on June 14, 2008, (as a result of a scuba diving accident) disrupted this undertaking, and only one of the albums, Leucocyte (ACT, 2008), was released at the time.


Three years later, in October and November 2011, Berglund and Öström revisited the material from that recording session and together, with the band’s regular sound engineer Ake Linton, made their own edit for an album which is now called 301, on the basis of the name of the studio where the album was recorded.

 
For more information on e.s.t., visit est-music.com. For more information on The ACT Company, visit actmusic.com.

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Music leader exits Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church

Keith Williams

Keith Williams, EPM Music Group recording artist and senior vice president, has left his post as director of Music and Arts at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. served as pastor at the height of the ’60s Civil Rights Movement. His final service there took place on Easter Sunday.

“This was not a sudden decision,” says Williams in a news release, who will continue to live and work in the Atlanta area. “We’ve been planning this transition for months so that I can focus on my new duties as an executive with EPM Music Group and also so that I can finish my CD and fulfill the call I have to the national musical arena.”

Williams has been juggling many roles over the past year with his church duties, helping push Earnest Pugh’s smash hit “I Need Your Glory” to No. 1 on Billboard’s Gospel Chart and signing music veteran Chrystal Rucker as the first artist on EPM Music Group. At the same time, Williams has been sorting through songs and writing tunes for his August 14 sophomore CD release “Introducing Keith Williams.”

Williams is a classically trained pianist and vocalist. He’s spent the last two decades as a worship leader at prestigious churches across the United States such as Ebenezer A.M.E. Church in Fort Washington, Maryland,  and the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Williams’ style is a cross between the legendary Douglas Miller’s nearly operatic baritone and John Stoddard’s polished notes. Over the years, Williams has written songs for Jennifer Holliday, Dottie Peoples, Vanessa Armstrong and Earnest Pugh.  His debut CD, “…& Again I Say Rejoice,” appeared in 2008. For more information, go to www.epmmusicgroup.com

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Canada Carol Welsman jazz Justin Time Records music new releases travel United States world

Vocalist Carol Welsman finds inspiration from world travels for album “Journey”

On her 10th recording, vocalist Carol Welsman invites her followers to tag along on a spirited yet intimate adventure. The vocalist explores 14 classic songs on Journey (Justin Time Records), all inspired by her lifelong love of traveling.
While jaunting from city to city can be somewhat draining for most people, Welsman enjoys the same sense of happy wanderlust that she had the first time she flew to Boston from her hometown of Toronto to attend the Berklee College of Music as a piano performance major. Since then, she has jazzed thousands of fans everywhere from Tokyo and New York to Italy and Brazil; lived for years in France, Italy and Los Angeles; and continues to be an iconic figure in her home country of Canada, where she has received five Juno nominations over the course of her 15-year recording career.
While her rich discography includes numerous acclaimed recordings showcasing her powerful skills as a songwriter, Journey follows in the tradition of Welsman’s previous thematic excursions, including Swing Ladies Swing! A Tribute to Singers of the Swing Era (1999), What’cha Got Cookin’, a set of jazzed up country standards produced by Pierre and Mary Cossette (2005), the Japan-released Benny Goodman tribute Memories of You (2008) and Welsman’s the tour de force I Like Men, Reflections of Miss Peggy Lee, which earned the singer her fifth Juno nod for Best Jazz Vocal Album of the Year in Canada and was named one of USA Today’s Top 5 albums of the year (alongside Barbra Streisand and Mark Knopfler) and #3 album of the year in Jazz Times.
Produced by Welsman’s longtime band members, guitarist Pierre Coté and drummer/percussionist Jimmy Branly, Journey also features Marc Rogers on bass and a guest spot by trumpeter Ron Di Lauroon “You Came a Long Way from St. Louis.”  Though most songs are sung in her native English, she draws on her fluency in French for “Volons Vers La Lune” (an exuberant, coolly swinging adaptation of “Fly Me to the Moon”) and the hauntingly eloquent “Si J’étais Un Homme,” and sings Portuguese throughout the first part of a spirited romp through Jobim’s “Samba De Avião.”

Beyond the compelling song list and Welsman’s unique interpretations, another fascinating element of this Journey is the fact that every tune was recorded in one or two takes, with the band recording 16 tracks in four days. Welsman prepared for the sessions with pre-production demos and, embodying the true essence of jazz, was open to changing course and improvising when the spirit of the song led the band in a different direction during the rehearsal session before recording. Her idea to drop the drums from “Route 66,” for instance, happened during the first run through the song in the recording studio.


“That’s the great thing about jazz, being open to making last-minute changes to make every song and arrangement flow just right,” says Welsman in a news release. “I wanted to play with the intimacy of the music, which means there could be a sudden change of attitude, as in ‘Never Make Your Move too Soon,’ which started out as a straight blues but seemed too forced that way. The result was that we were able to have a nice palette of colors with which to present this special array of songs. One of the key things was vibe. I didn’t want to be too over the top, but more on the quiet side so that you could put it on during dinner and then later it would lend itself to more detailed listening. Because we were drawing from so many sources and influences, I was amazed at the end that everything had an organic feel and was totally cohesive. All the themes connected as if we had somehow planned it that way. Dropping an instrument here and there definitely was part of the balanced approach we took.”


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contemporary jazz festivals Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival jazz jazz festivals New York Saratoga Springs United States world

Esperanza Spalding, Diana Krall & Trombone Shorty to perform at the 35th annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival

Esperanza Spalding,
Credit: Carlos Pericás

Esperanza Spalding, Diana Krall and Trombone Shorty will be performing at the 35th annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, scheduled on Saturday, June 30 and Sunday, July 1, 2012, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, 108 Avenue of the Pines in Saratoga Springs, NY.

ESPERANZA SPALDING – Just one year after taking home a Grammy Award in the Best New Artist category, the bassist/vocalist performed a beautiful rendition of “What a Wonderful World” alongside the Southern California Children’s Choir at the 2012 84th Oscar Academy Awards in Los Angeles on February 26. She will perform on June 30.
 Diana Krall,
Credit: Courtesy of Artist
DIANA KRALL – The world-renowned artist and and one of the best-selling jazz vocalists of all time recently appeared with Paul McCartney on the 2012 Grammy Awards telecast in Los Angeles on February 12.  She will perform on July 1.
TROMBONE SHORTY – The New Orleans native trombone/trumpet phenomenon recently participated in a PBS televised performance at The White House as a part of the Black History Month celebration in Washington, D.C., on February 21.  Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue will perform on July 1.


Trombone Shorty,
 Credit: Jane Richey
For more information on the 35th annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, go to http://www.spac.org/jazzfest/.
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Mitch’s Travel: TripAdvisor lists Namale Resort & Spa among best hotels in world

Namale Resort and Spa

For the second year in a row, Namale Resort & Spa has been named among the best hotels in the world in TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice awards, reinforcing its place as a leader in overall hotel experience and spas in the Oceania Region. This year, Namale was named a Top 25 Hotel in the South Pacific and was included in the Top 5 for Relaxation & Spa Hotels in the South Pacific. The South Pacific line up for both awards was inclusive of properties in Australia and New Zealand.
Namale, the holiday getaway for celebrities such as Russell Crowe, Donna Karan and Meg Ryan (to name a few) is located on the edge of the Koro Sea in Savusavu, Fiji. The resort’s multi-award winning spa is set on a volcanic cliff near an opaque rain forest and offers each guest world-class treatments, ancient aromas, ocean views and a variety of luxurious reflexology techniques to relax and soothe.
TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice awards are based on the reviews and opinions of millions of travelers, and are awarded only to a very select and distinguished group of hotels. Last year, Namale was named the Best Hotel for Romance by TripAdvisor in their 2011 awards. Namale was also named one of the Top 50 Most Romantic Places on Earth by Luxury Magazine and received a mention in Spa Magazine’s 2011 Silver Sage Reader’s Choice Awards.
This year’s 10th annual Travelers’ Choice Awards honored properties around the world in 30 counties and 8 regions, including properties across Australia and New Zealand. This year’s list examined 3,943 properties in the following categories: best luxury and bargain; best service, best B&Bs and inns; best all-inclusive; best spa; and trendiest.
Offering 19 bures and villas of award-winning accommodations, along with 120 on-call staff members, Namale caters to anything their guests could ever need or want.  The five-star resort and spa sprawls over 525 acres of land that offers the idyllic backdrop for romance, unparalleled luxury, privacy and splendor that only begins to describe the way of life at this all inclusive resort.
Namale is also offering guests seven nights for the price of six if guests book to stay now through May 31, with additional perks starting April 1, 2012.
For more information on Namale, please visit www.namalefiji.com.
For the complete 2012 Travelers’ Choice list, go to www.tripadvisor.com/travelerschoice

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Alfredo Rodriguez Cuba jazz Mack Avenue Records music new releases performances releases Sounds of Space world world music

Cuban pianist and composer Alfredo Rodríguez to release “Sounds of Space” on March 27

Sounds of Space (Mack Avenue Records), the title of Cuban pianist and composer Alfredo Rodríguez‘ debut recording, evokes images of science fiction. In truth, it’s about a far more personal adventure. The project will be released on March 27.

“It’s about the space that surrounds us,” he says in a news release. “In this record I wanted to introduce myself: Here are the people, the places and the sounds that have surrounded me, and made me who I am.”
A key player in Rodríguez’ extraordinary story is producer Quincy Jones, who co-produced Sounds of Space with Rodríguez.
“He is very special, and I do not say that easily because I have been surrounded by the best musicians in the world my entire life,” said Jones in a news release. “And he is one of the best.” 

In turn, for Rodríguez, 26, Jones has not only become a mentor and a teacher but “like a new father.” Still, such priceless endorsement can also create impossibly high expectations. But in Sounds of Space, Rodríguez proves up to the challenge.
The album comprises 11 tracks composed and arranged by Rodríguez. It includes nods to Cuban masters such as Ernesto Lecuona, but also pianistic models such as Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk; it draws on the tradition, but it has a personal imprint. And now and then, Sounds of Space is also shaped by nostalgia for a country left behind, so near yet so far.
Born in Havana, Cuba, the son of a popular singer, television presenter and entertainer of the same name, Rodríguez began his formal music education at seven. Percussion, not piano, was his first choice. 

“But…to choose what I wanted I had to wait until I was 10,” he explains. “So I picked piano. By the time I could actually switch to percussion, I knew the piano was my path.”
He graduated to the Conservatorio Amadeo Roldán, and then to the Instituto Superior de Arte. But while his formal musical education was strictly classical, he also learned music “on the street,” or more precisely, on stage. 

“I didn’t play with many dance groups, but I played in my dad’s band since I was 14,” he says. “And my dad presented a daily TV show and many famous Cuban musicians came through it and we had every type of music. I was still a kid but had a chance to perform every day, and write arrangements for all kinds of music: boleros, rock ‘n roll, dance music-you name it. It is where I learned the discipline of being a professional musician. That was another great school for me. I was very lucky.”

The momentous discovery during that formative period, however, came packed on a CD. 

“When I was 15, my uncle gave me Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert,”  Rodríguez says. “That’s when I began to explore the idea of improvisation. Up to then it had been all Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, and I’m thankful to my teachers for it because without that I wouldn’t be the same pianist. But up to that point I didn’t know anything about improvisation. The Köln Concert changed my life. I realized that was what I wanted to do: just sit and play. And not only musical ideas; music doesn’t come only from music. It can reflect and speak to what surrounds us.”

Alfredo Rodriguez Trio perform Cu-bop from Blue Green on Vimeo.

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Blue Note Jamaica jazz Monty Alexander music New York New York City performances United States world world music

Pianist Monty Alexander celebrates 50 years in music with two-week engagement at Blue Note

Monty Alexander Photo by:  Alan Nahigian

In a career spanning five decades, pianist Monty Alexander has distinctively bridged the worlds of jazz, popular song, and the music of his native Jamaica. With over 70 albums to his name, Alexander celebrates his 50th year in music with an ambitious, two-week engagement at New York’s Blue Note, on Monday, February 20 through Sunday, March 4.


 Alexander will present the engagement in two parts: Part 1 – The Full Monty: 50 Years in Music! (February 23 – 28) and Part 2 – Jamaica Meets Jazz – A One Love Celebration (February 29 – March 4). The featured body of work and lineup will vary throughout the engagement, with each evening focusing on a project from Alexander’s extensive career (six projects total will be presented throughout the engagement). Special guests throughout the two weeks include Russell Malone, Christian McBride, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Pat Martino, Freddie Cole, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ernest Ranglin, John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton, and Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar, among others.


“I derive great personal joy and satisfaction from being able to present music that can bring out people of all persuasions and life styles,” says Alexander in a news release, “from Kingston, Jamaica to New York and the rest of the world – that’s my Harlem-Kingston Express train. That is what this Blue Note booking is all about.”
Part 1 of the engagement will kick off on February 20 with a performance by one of Alexander’s working ensembles, Harlem-Kingston Express, featuring special guest, guitarist Ernest Ranglin. They will perform music from their Grammy Award nominated debut, Harlem-Kingston Express: Live! (Motéma Music – released in June 2011).
On February 21 and 22, Alexander will bring back his long-standing Triple Treat project. Originally consisting of guitarist Herb Ellis and bassist Ray Brown (a group that toured and recorded together throughout much of the 80s), Alexander will reinvigorate the trio in a program titled “Triple Treat Revisited,” featuring one of the “living descendants” of Brown, bassist Christian McBride, as well as guitarist Russell Malone, who appeared on Brown’s last recording, along with Alexander.
Alexander’s Uplift! trio project (stemming from the March 2011 Jazz Legacy Productions release of the same name) will perform on February 23 and 24, featuring organist Lonnie Smith and guitarist Pat Martino respectively. On February 25 will showcase Ivory & Steel, a project that reflects the music of Trinidad and the steel drum tradition (much like the Iron & Steel group Alexander led in the 70’s and 80’s).  
With “A Night at Jilly’s” on February 26, Alexander will honor the first jazz club he performed in when he arrived to New York City from Jamaica in 1963 – Jilly’s. It was here that Alexander began to establish himself on the U.S. scene. During his three year’s at the club, he had the privilege of accompany the great Frank Sinatra.  Special guests for the evening will include vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater and Freddie Cole.
Closing out Part 1 of Alexander’s engagement will be “The Montreux Alexander ’76 Trio Reunion” on February 27 and 28, dedicated to one of the pianist’s most celebrated albums, Montreux Alexander: The Monty Alexander Trio Live! at the Montreux Festival. The show will feature the original trio, with bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton.
Alexander goes directly to his Jamaican roots with Part 2 of the engagement. On February 29-March 2, Alexander will present “Monty meets Sly & Robbie,” performances with drummer Sly Dunbarand bassist Robbie Shakespeare. Sly & Robbie are two of reggae’s most recognized trailblazers and collaborated with Alexander on his album, Monty Meets Sly & Robbie. The pianist will conclude the engagement by bringing back his Harlem-Kingston Express group for two final nights on March 3 and 4. Special guests for these performance dates are TBA.  

Alexander has been on the express track and now, in this 50th year of phenomenal musicianship, he shows no sign of slowing down. In 1961, the urban sophistication of jazz and the American songbook, and an invitation to accompany none other than Frank Sinatra, lured the teen prodigy Alexander away from Jamaica and the art form most associated with that nation. The move led to an extraordinary career in jazz, reggae and popular song including collaboration with greats such as Tony Bennett, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, Bill Cosby and Bobby McFerrin.  


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Grammy Awards instrumental jazz music reggae United States vocal performance world world music

54th annual Grammy Awards: DL Media clients receive eight nominations in six categories from NARAS voting members

In a news release, DL Media announces the following jazz artists who have received nominations for the 54th annual Grammy Awards:
 


Best Jazz Vocal Album


 The Mosaic Project
Terri Lyne Carrington & Various Artists
[Concord Jazz]

Best Jazz Instrumental Album


 Timeline
Yellowjackets
[Mack Avenue Records]     


Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album

  
The Good Feeling
Christian McBride Big Band
[Mack Avenue Records]

40 Acres And A Burro
Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
[Zoho]

Legacy
Gerald Wilson Orchestra
[Mack Avenue Records]

Best Reggae Album


Harlem-Kingston Express Live!
Monty Alexander
[Motéma Music]  


Best Instrumental Composition

Russell Ferrante, composer (Yellowjackets)
Track from: Timeline
[Mack Avenue Records

Best Instrumental Arrangement
Accompanying Vocalist(s) 

Ao Mar
Vince Mendoza, arranger (Vince Mendoza)
Track from: Nights On Earth
[HORIZONTAL]