The 58th Grammy Awards—Did They Make Better Music?

The 58th Grammy Awards

Let's investigate whether they are still a celebration of the best of the best in entertainment

by Dendy Jarrett

Can we just get back to entertaining people? 

But before I continue, I have a personal message for those responsible for the sound on the Grammys: You have one job—provide sound for a show that is all about how musicians sound. Why is this so hard? Each year, it seems we would see improvement, yet, last night’s sound was one of the worst ever. I know there are a lot of moving parts and it’s very demanding to deal with a live performance, but the Grammys should be a showcase for quality sound…whatever it takes.

Taylor Swift certainly opened the show in style with an extreme amount of energy. I’m not sure how much the audience appreciated being glitter-bombed, but look out—Taylor is reminding me more and more of a young Dolly Parton dynamo. I'm starting to think today’s children will still be talking about her when they become adults.

And when she gave her acceptance speech for winning best album of the year, she, with so much dignity, cut Kanye West down to size without ever mentioning his name. And I quote: “There are going to be people along the way…who will try to undercut your success, or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.” And she continued, “But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you’ll look around and you’ll know it was you and the people you love who put you there and that is the greatest feeling in the world.” Anyone following the antics of Kanye knows he needs help, and this was a well-worded response to the gratuitous insults to Ms. Swift in his new song, “Famous.” (Which I believe we should all boycott, but I digress.)

Taylor wasn’t the only pop/country crossover musician who made a mark. When Carrie Underwood came out to sing the duet with Sam Hunt (“Take Your Time”), while the jury is out on Sam Hunt for me, I thought Carrie did a great job of bringing the song’s lyrics to life.

Later in the show, The Weekend came out and did a brilliant performance of his smash hit “Can’t Feel My Face” and a slower version of “In The Night,” both from his album Beauty Behind the Madness. Unfortunately, the second song didn’t meet the standards of the first. Perhaps the performance, which featured him backed by a piano and a cello, was a last-minute effort as he was originally slated to perform a duet with Lauryn Hill, but she pulled out after the dress rehearsal (there has to be a backstory to that). He did take home a well-deserved Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album—I guess people took him seriously, even with that hair.

Ellie Goulding and Andra Day performed “Love Me Like You Do” and “Rise Up,” accompanied only by a guitar. They couldn’t hide behind a band, but they didn’t need to—their voices blended beautifully, and you could feel the emotion in the words being sung. It was one of my favorite performances of the show.

A lifetime achievement award went to Lionel Richie. John Legend, Demi Lovato, Tyrese Gibson and Luke Bryan joined forces to sing a tribute of Richie’s greatest hits. (Cue sound effect of a needle being dragged across a vinyl record)—Luke Bryan! Yes, Luke Bryan, who my daughter says sounds like Gomer Pyle. He couldn’t have been more out of place, but John Legend and Demi made up for the shortcomings of the country newcomer. Demi Lovato simply killed it on the song “Hello,” and won vocal approval from Lionel as he watched from the front row.

Adele performed a delicate rendition of “All I Ask” (from her 2015 album 25) which left many people scratching their heads. How could Adele, who is so pitch perfect, be so “pitchy?” Well, in several follow-up statements issued by the Grammys, they admit that the microphone for the piano had fallen into the piano’s strings (I guess they weren’t using the Earthworks PianoMic system…just sayin’). This caused a cascade of problems—it rattled Adele’s nerves, as she was visibly shaken when the song started. It caused the percussive strikes of the piano hammers to sound like some rogue-acoustic-guitarist warming up in the wings…as the mic bounced around (further causing several notes to be out of tune on the piano keys), and finally, it caused the people attempting to run sound to switch from the live sound to a different backup track. There was a delay in the house where there was no music at all for a second or two, and because she was standing next to the piano, she was wearing no in-ear monitors. When they switched to the backup tracks, she couldn’t hear them. No monitor = can’t hear = pitchy performance.

But, I have to give her props. Many would have caved. She plowed right on through the challenge and I’d much rather hear a pitchy real Adele performance than a pitch-corrected (insert any other performer’s name) performance. (In fact this reminded me of something Craig Anderton said after Martina McBride’s fourth of July performance in Nashville—“the best part was when she hit two wrong notes, because then I knew all the other ones were real.”)

There was a throwback tribute to founding Eagles member Glenn Frey (who died earlier this year) with Jackson Browne and the remaining Eagles members, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, guitarist Joe Walsh, and bassist Timothy Schmit. Browne performed the song he helped Glenn Frey pen, “Take It Easy” which resulted in a standing ovation.

Another tribute performance was Lady Gaga’s honoring of David Bowie. Lately, I have a new-found respect for Lady Gaga after she shed the costume theatrics and proved her true vocal talent and prowess singing with the likes of Tony Bennett. Again, she delivered a stellar performance—sometimes even sounding strangely like Bowie himself—but the overall presentation was somewhat awkward and disjointed…imagine Cirque du Soleil on a collision course with Major Tom’s starship. Intel added some cutting-edge technology, but their trumpeting of it in what was supposed to be a tribute lessened the attempt to honor a recently lost superstar.

The off-site performance of Broadway’s Hamilton was powerful and intriguing, even though it was difficult for me to follow along with the lyrics. It certainly is a different “twist” on a Broadway performance. Lin-Manuel Miranda rapped the acceptance speech as Hamilton won for Best Musical Theater album.

Kendrick Lamar’s performance was completely off the chain, with a strong visual element mixed with his rap-style delivery. To appreciate the performance, and the place where Kendrick is coming from, you need to know the backstory of his desire to see kids find a way out of poverty…which includes his receiving a few civic awards for his outreach programs in Compton, CA.

Yet I can’t help but think some of the message is being lost in translation to those who want to hear it the most. To quote a long-time drummer friend, “Much of hip-hop and rap suffers from the same disease much of pop and pop country suffer from—the virus that makes the marginally-talented-with-access-to-a-studio think the world needs to hear their sophomoric screeds and pedestrian musical scribblings. So when I hear someone like Kendrick Lamar, who's incorporating some pretty interesting musical ideas, I want to know what he's saying. But I'm an old geezer who's not accustomed to absorbing rapid-fire lyrics.” I’m not sure what the solution is—subtitles seem kind of patronizing—but when someone has a message worth hearing, I wish it could be heard by everyone.

A visibly emotional Stevie Wonder and a-cappella group Pentatonix honored Maurice White less than two weeks after his death with a stunning performance of Earth, Wind and Fire’s “That’s the Way of the World.” Then again, who could you possibly get who would be better than Stevie Wonder?

There was one more notable tribute performance of the night to honor B. B. King. Chris Stapleton, Gary Clark Jr., and Bonnie Raitt delivered a stirring rendition of “The Thrill Is Gone.” Chris with his whiskey tenor voice and Gary were both tremendous, but Bonnie captured the moment for me (as she usually does). It doesn’t get any better, and B. B. had to have been smilin’ down.

Tori Kelly and James Bay performed a mash-up of their hits “Hollow” and “Let it Go” and took us back to the simplistic and wonderful world of acoustic vocal performance.

Coming a long way from her roots as a rural mail carrier, front woman Brittany Howard along with her band Alabama Shakes took me home. Their debut Grammy performance with a rendition of “Don’t Wanna Fight” was as soulful and commanding as anything else offered on the Grammys. She owned the theatre. And their Sound and Color album won Best Rock Song and Band’s Rock Performance.

Justin Bieber performed.

Okay, next. In what I believe was the most poignant speech of the evening, Recording Academy president Neil Portnow and Common spoke about a musician’s right to make a good living performing their craft. To provide a stunning example, 12-year-old Indonesian jazz pianist prodigy, Joey Alexander performed Eddie Harris’s “Freedom Jazz Dance.” Afterward, Neil and Common stated “When you stream a song, all the people that created that music receive a fraction of a penny. Isn’t a song worth more (to you) than a penny?”

And finally, there was a performance by the Hollywood Vampires. The band consists of Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, and Johnny Depp, with Matt Sorum on drums. They paid tribute (in a way) to the late Lemmy Kilmister, Motorhead’s frontman.

While this isn’t my kind of music, to see Alice Cooper at age 68 rocking out in his theatrical prowess sure made me appreciate his stamina and love of music. To understand their performance (even if it isn’t your kind of music), you have to appreciate the backstory of the Hollywood Vampires with its start by Alice Cooper in the early 70’s at the Rainbow Bar and Grill in West Hollywood. Only then does it answer the questions about why these older rockers are on stage reveling in old-school rock.

All in all, as I get older, I try to see through the political agendas, and the need for stardom and try to embrace the love of music…the memories it evokes, and the feelings and places that flood my mind about when and where I first heard certain songs, and what I associate with them. This year saw the passing of many iconic figures who shaped music as we know it today. I suspect that’s systemic to my age, but it doesn’t make it any easier to accept the loss.

I hope that artists can push through all the agendas, and cut through the insanity of the music business, to remember why they started making music in the first place—to entertain people through shared emotions, in the form of music.

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Dendy Jarrett is the Publisher and Director of Harmony Central. He has been heavily involved at the executive level in many aspects of the drum and percussion industry for over 25 years and has been a professional player since he was 16. His articles and product reviews have been featured in InTune Monthly, Gig Magazine, DRUM! and Modern Drummer Magazines.

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RECAP:

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