Grammy Time
gory, there's veteran Jewish comedian/director CARL
REINER, for Tell Me a Scary Story. The Best Musical
Album for Children nominees include CATHY FINK,
who is Jewish, and Marcy Marxer for Bon Appetit!.
Music awards show features a heavy roster of Jewish nominees.
New Artists
SEAN PAUL, a young Jamaican fellow who is
NATE BLOOM
Special to the Jewish News
T
his year's Grammy telecast, 8-11 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 8, on CBS, will honor record-
ings released between Oct. 1, 2002, and
Sept. 30, 2003.
There are more than 100 music categories in which
nominees are up for awards, but only a small number
of golden gramophones are actually handed out on the
TV broadcast. Other winners — who receive their
awards in separate ceremonies — are, however,
announced throughout the show.
Here is a rundown on many of the Jewish nominees.
Classical
In the classical categories, there are, as usual, a number
of Jewish nominees. MICHAEL TILSON
THOMAS, the conductor of the San Francisco
Symphony, is nominated for Best Classical Album for
Mahler's Symphony #3; I6ndertotenlieder.
The Best Instrumental Soloist category includes three
Jewish pianists: ANDRES SCHIFF, a Hungarian, for
his performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations, EVGE-
NY KISSIN, who moved to the U.S. from Russia in
1992, for a Brahms piece; and EMANUEL AX, a
Polish-born, Canadian-raised musician who has long
delighted audiences. He's nominated for his perform-
ance of several of Haydn's sonatas.
In the Best Opera Recording category is a production
of Halevy: La Juive ("The Jewess"), from New York's
Metropolitan Opera, written by Jacques Halevy (1799-
1862). Tenor NEIL SHICOFF, who sang the lead male
role, is one of the nominated La Juive performers.
Stage And Screen
In the Best Musical Show Album category, it's a sweep
for Jewish composers and lyricists.
All the nominated cast albums are revivals, with the
exception of BILLY JOEL'S Movin' Out, based on his
old songs and now playing at the Fisher Theatre.
The revivals include Flower Drum Song (RICHARD
RODGERS and OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II,
whose father was Jewish); Gypsy (STEPHEN SOND-
HEIM and JULE STYNE); Man of La Mancha
(MITCH LEIGH and JOE DARION); and Nine
(MAURY YESTON). Yeston, like Neil Shicoff, is the
son of a cantor.
Jewish composers nominated for Best Song Written
for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
include FRED EBB and JOHN KANDER for "I'll
Move On," from Chicago; Detroiter JEFF BASS, co-
writer of "Lose Yourself," from 8 Mile, and EUGENE
LEVY, co-writer of "A Mighty Wind" from A Mighty
Wind. "Lose Yourself" also is nominated for Song of
the Year and Best Rap Song. (It won the Oscar last year
for Bak Song.)
Nate Bloom is the Oakland, Cali f.
wwwjewhoo.com.
2/ 6
2004
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editor of
Nominated as a producer in the Best Compilation
Soundtrack Album category for School of Rock is the
film's star, JACK BLACK
And in another related category, Best Score
Soundtrack Album, composers PHILIP GLASS ( The
Hours), HOWARD SHORE (Lord of the Rings: The
Two Towers) and RANDY NEWMAN (Seabiscuit) are
nominated. Newman also is nominated for
"Seabiscuit," the title track of the film, in the Best Pop
Instrumental category.
Jaz7iLatin/Country
Joining Newman in that category is DAVE KOZ, for
"Honey-Dipped" from Saxophonic. This is the third
nomination for saxophonist Koz, a
million-selling artist whose "smooth
jazz" has found a large and apprecia-
tive audience.
In the jazz categories, the multi-
Grammy winning saxophone-
playing Brecker brothers have
scored more nominations:
MICHAEL BRECKER for Best
Large Ensemble Album ( Wide
Angles) and RANDY BRECKER
for Best Contemporary Jazz
Album (34th N Lex).
Michael Brecker also garnered nominations in the
composing and arranging categories, with nods for Best
Instrumental Composition ("Broadband" froth Wide
Angles) and Best Instrumental Arrangement
("Timbuktu" from Wide Angles).
A number of Jews show up in the Latin categories.
MARK LEVINE and his band, The Latin Tinge, are
nominated for Best Latin Jazz Album (Isla), as is
DAVE SAMUELS and his Caribbean Jazz Project, up
for Birds of a Feather.
Up for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album is President
Alien by Yerba Buena, a multicultural group helmed by
Venezuelan-born guitarist/keyboardist ANDRES
LEVIN, a preVious winner in the Latin Grammys.
RAY BENSON, the frontman for Asleep at the
Wheel, is nominated for Best Male Country Vocal
Performance for 'Annabelle" and for Best Country
Instrumental Performance for 'Ain't Chet Yet," both
from the album Beyond Time.
Words 6. Music
Jewish comedians have their share of nominations as
well: AL FRANKEN, in the Best Spoken Word Album
category for the audio reading of his book Lies and the
Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and DAVID CROSS, in
the Best Comedy Album category.
Franken, it was just announced, will be a host on a
new liberal radio network. Cross, the co-star of TV's
Arrested Development, finished second in Bravo's just-
concluded Celebrity Poker show. BILL MAHER is also
nominated for his comedy album. While he's Jewish on
his mother's side, he was raised Catholic.
In the Best Spoken Word Album for Children cate-
Sephardic on his father's side, has been nominated for
Best New Artist (in any category of music). He's also
up for Best Reggae Album for Dutty Rock and for Best
Male Rap Solo, for "Get Busy,"
from Dutty Rock. Paul's full name
is Sean Paul Henriques. The
Henriques have been, for cen-
turies, one of the most promi-
nent Jamaican Jewish families.
Paul attended, among other
schools, the Jamaican Hillel
Academy. He will perform with
Sting on the Grammy broadcast.
Joining Sean Paul in the cate-
gory of Best New Artist nominee
Sean Paul
is pop group Fountains of
Wayne, a band that includes
Jewish member ADAM SCHLESINGER. The pop
trio is also nominated for Best Pop Performance for a
Duo or Group with Vocal for "Stacy's Mom," from its
best-selling CD Welcome Interstate Managers.
Schlesinger was raised in a secular Jewish home in
Montclair, N.J., and comes from a musical family. His
grandparents were concert violinists, and his father is a
conductor and music professor at Syracuse University.
Mostly Pop
The multitalented BETTE MIDLER is nominated for
Best Traditional Pop Album for The Rosemary Clooney
Songbook. At press time, Midler said she might ask that
her nomination be withdrawn because she is, ironically,
competing with the last album recorded by the late
Rosemary Clooney.
Midler also goes up against BARBRA
STREISAND's The Movie Album. Singer k.d. lang is
also nominated in this category
for A Wonderful World, with
Tony Bennett; lang has some
remote Jewish ancestry and, in
years past, said she identified as
Jewish.
RICHARD MARX, who had
a series of big hits in the 1980s,
is nominated for Song of the
Year and Best R&B Song for
"Dance With My Father," his
songwriting collaboration with
Barbra Streisand
Luther Vandross. Marx's late
father, a successful jingle writer,
was Jewish. His late mother was not. Marx was raised
without religion.
Competing with Best New Artist nominees Fountains
of Wayne in the Best Pop Performance by a Group with
Vocal category is DAVID BRYAN and the other mem-
bers of the mega-selling rock band Bon Jovi, nominated
for "Misunderstood" from Bounce.
Bryan, a keyboardist, is a practicing Jew who told
Reform Judaism magazine a few years ago that his faith
informs his work. He is, by the way, the official shofar
blower for his synagogue.