GRAMMY WATCH - World Music and Reggae Categories - Picks & Predictions

While my personal growing love for world music, most notably the poetry and rhythms of Reggae, some artists I have come to love went unnoticed this year. Some of these lesser known about Grammy fields have a seemingly separate set of rules, and eligibility ends August 31st now - as opposed to the many years when the awards year ended the end of September. Not sure if that has anything to do with NAS & Damien Jr. Gong Marley's sensational and instantly classic Distant Relatives album or Gyptian's triumphant breakthrough effort with Hold You not being nominated in the reggae category or not, but these two omissions peeved me the morning the Grammy nominations were announced.

PLEASE tell me it is a simple release date issue and they will have a chance next year. Clearly, these two discs were two of the best albums of the year, let alone 'reggae' albums and for them to not be Grammy nominated gives me a headache. LOL. Now, don't get me wrong, the six nominated albums are not chopped liver. The fact that none of them topped the charts on Billboard leads me to also believe that either Billboard needs to expand the cap on their Reggae chart or the musical genre is growing faster than people can track and chart it.

Either way, steps need to be taken to get these Reggae and World Music artists more airplay, sales and recognition. Their booming sounds and percussive passion is like heaven.

Best Reggae Album

The fact that Gregory Isaacs left this earth last year without ever getting a Grammy mention is disturbing to me. I hope the voters feel the same way and give him a posthumous win here. The competition is fierce though, Buju Banton, Lee Perry, Bob Sinclair, Sly & Robbie and Andrew Tosh's heartfelt tribute to legendary Peter Tosh were all finely made albums (again supporting my argument about the broader appeal this genre has obtained in recent years). It just all goes back to Gregory Isaacs for me, and with such a vast amount of his hundreds of recordings and his crossover appeal to Children's music and R&B - he should get the Grammy he should have gotten way before now.

My Pick & Prediction:

ISAACS MEETS ISAAC

Gregory Isaacs & King Isaac

[King Isaac Music]

Best Traditional World Music Album

If the Soweto Gospel Choir doesn't get a Grammy win in the Classical categories they are mentioned in, I think they will definitely win here. Their sounds is about as close to God one can get, musically. Truly, a triumphant and joyous story - and recording.

My Pick & Prediction:

GRACE

Soweto Gospel Choir

[Shanachie Entertainment]

Best Contemporary World Music Album

Bela Fleck is, and will always be hard to beat. Anyone who knows the history, knows this.

...but I liked what I heard from Sergio Mendes a little bit more.

My Pick:

BOM TEMPO

Sergio Mendes

[Concord Records]

My Prediction:

THROW DOWN YOUR HEART , AFRICA SESSIONS

PART 2: UNRELEASED TRACKS

Béla Fleck

[Acoustic Planet Records]

The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards will be telecast live on Sunday, February 13, 2011 on CBS at 8pm, EST. For complete coverage and full nominees list, please visit the Grammy site.

GRAMMY WATCH - Best Classical Crossover Album - Picks & Predictions

In a year where Sting overtook the Classical Albums charts on Billboard, he is noticeably absent from the Grammy's list for this category. That being said, it is still a dog fight in my eyes. All I can say is WOW! This is what it is all about. Some of the best really shine the brightest here and that is why I covered it alone, as opposed to with the other several Classical categories.

And the nominees are:

Best Classical Crossover Album

MEETING OF THE SPIRITS
Matt Haimovitz (Amaryllis Jarczyk, Jan Jarczyk, John
McLaughlin, Dominic Painchaud, Leanna Rutt & Matt
Wilson) [Oxingale Records]

OFF THE MAP
The Silk Road Ensemble [World Village]

ROOTS - MY LIFE, MY SONG
Jessye Norman (Ira Coleman, Steve Johns, Mike Lovatt,
Mark Markham & Martin Williams) [Sony Classical]

TIN, CHRISTOPHER: CALLING ALL DAWNS
Lucas Richman, conductor (Sussan Deyhim, Lia, Kaori
Omura, Dulce Pontes, Jia Ruhan, Aoi Tada & Frederica von
Stade; Anonymous 4 & Soweto Gospel Choir; Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra) [Tin Works Publishing]

VOCABULARIES
Bobby McFerrin
[Emarcy/Universal

Jessye Norman has had a long and storied career and her look back on not only that in Roots, but her life as well is a surefire tour de force. Silk Road Ensemble and Matt Haimovitz put forth solid efforts. Soweto Gospel Choir with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, just the culmination of that work coming together and the back story of it makes you want to cheer for them. Definitely a heart tugger. Bobby McFerrin will definitely get votes from his pop and jazz families, and deservedly so with him expanding his already broad range. His Vocabularies is definitely a feather in his cap.

My Pick: Jessye Norman

My Predicition: Bobby McFerrin

The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards will be telecast live on CBS - Sunday, February 13.

For more information on the nominees and for full coverage visit www.grammy.com.