The awards for Best Latin Jazz Album won't be announced during the network-televised show on April 3, but you can see them in the pre-telecast live-stream at grammy.com and theRecording Academy's YouTube channel.
Listen for a selection from these Grammy-nominated albums this week on Saturday's Jazz Caliente:
The South Bronx Story by bassist Carlos Henriquez pays tribute to the energetic neighborhood and the vibrant culture of the Puerto Rican immigrants who settled in New York City. Henriquez has spent the past 20 years as bassist for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
El Arte del Bolero by saxophonist Miguel Zenón and pianist Luis Perdomo is a feast of ballads (boleros) from Cuba and Puerto Rico, timeless songs of love and heartbreak beautifully recorded as a live show, all in one take.
Mirror Mirror by pianist Eliane Elias with Chick Corea and Chucho Valdes is the Brazilian pianists dream come true; for years, she had wanted to do a piano duet album with jazz master Corea and the "Duke Ellington of Cuba," Valdes. The recording sessions were mostly unrehearsed, and they let the music guide them.
Cuban-born drummer, composer, educator, and 2011 MacArthur Genius Fellow Dafnis Prieto's latest, Transparency, is a sextet recording of mostly original material leaning more toward jazz with just a hint of Latin rhythm. The arrangements are fascinatingly rich.
Pianist/composer Arturo O'Farrill led the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra at the Birdland jazz club in New York on Sunday nights for several years. When the pandemic hit, they formed the ALJO Digital Village, with each musician recording remotely from wherever they were in lockdown. The ALJO recorded 50 performances in this fashion for the album Virtual Birdland, and even for those of us with "Zoom fatigue," the results are stunningly good.
Jazz Caliente airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. The show is hosted by Robin Lloyd and produced by KNKX Public Radio.
