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Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Photo: Thierry Orban/Sygma/Getty Images

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Watch GRAMMY Jazz Performances On Apple Music apple-music-watch-classic-grammy-jazz-performances

Apple Music: Watch Classic GRAMMY Jazz Performances

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Spanning jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Count Basie, Wynton Marsalis, and more, find out which unforgettable jazz GRAMMY performances you can watch now
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Jan 15, 2018 - 10:41 am

What would the fabric of American music look like if it weren't for jazz? It could be argued there would be no rock and roll or hip-hop had it not been for the piano finesse of Duke Ellington, the out-of-this-world scat singing of Ella Fitzgerald or the virtuoso saxophone wielding of Charlie Parker.

Apple Music: Classic GRAMMY Jazz Performances

Though jazz predates the 1958 inaugural GRAMMY Awards by decades, Music's Biggest Night didn't waste any time in recognizing the biggest names of the genre in its first few years — Fitzgerald, Ellington, Count Basie, and Miles Davis — and the legacy of honoring the best in jazz continues to this day with dedicated awards categories and unforgettable performances.

Now, you can relive the glory of jazz on the GRAMMY telecast thanks to the Recording Academy and Apple Music's exclusive commemorative video collection in celebration of the 60th GRAMMY Awards.

Watch vocal quartet the Mills Brothers satiate with their smooth harmonies during their jazz medley during the 20th GRAMMY Awards. That same year, Basie and his orchestra lit up the stage with a swingin' version of the standard "Sweet Georgia Brown."

Flugelhorn player Chuck Mangione gave a soulful rendition of his popular "Feels So Good" at the 21st GRAMMYs, while Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson tickled the ivories on "Just In Time." At the 26th telecast, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis was on fire for his performance of "Hummel: Rondo Allegro, Molto, Later."

Singer/bandleader Cab Calloway helped usher in the 30th GRAMMY Awards with his GRAMMY Hall Of Fame classic "Minnie The Moocher." Guitarist George Benson strummed up another spark of jazz at the telecast that year with "On Broadway."

At the 31st GRAMMYs, jazz vocal collective Manhattan Transfer livened up the evening with "She's The Most," while legendary trumpet master Dizzy Gillespie made a splash with "Brother Kay." Vocalist Sarah Vaughan closed the night for jazz with "So Many Stars." The following year, at the 32nd GRAMMY Awards, Miles Davis himself took the stage for "Hannibal."

Singer Nnenna Freelon and a cappella group Take 6 soared with "Straighten Up And Fly Right" at the 43rd GRAMMY Awards. And at the 51st GRAMMYs, a truly diverse group of musicians, including Lil Wayne, Robin Thicke, Allen Toussaint, Terence Blanchard, and Dirty Dozen Brass Band, brought down the house with "Big Chief, Feet Don't Fail Me Now."

All of these performances and more are available now, only on Apple Music. Watch now at Applemusic.com/GRAMMYs.

The 60th GRAMMY Awards will take place at New York City's Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Jan. 28. The telecast will be broadcast live on CBS at 7:30–11 p.m. ET/4:30–8 p.m. PT. 

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Watch GRAMMY Rock Performances On Apple Music apple-music-watch-electric-grammy-rock-performances

Apple Music: Watch Electric GRAMMY Rock Performances

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Rock out with Bruce Springsteen, the Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire, White Stripes, and more, by watching past jamming GRAMMY performances on Apple Music
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Jan 22, 2018 - 7:59 am

The GRAMMY Awards do indeed rock. Need the high-octane proof? You'll find it in a special curated batch of great rock moments from Music's Biggest Night, featuring the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Metallica and the White Stripes to the Police, Melissa Etheridge and the Foo Fighters.

Thanks to the Recording Academy and Apple Music's exclusive commemorative video collection in celebration of the 60th GRAMMY Awards, you can now binge-watch these amazing GRAMMY telecast performances.

The collection features metal band Metallica's slammin' 1989 version of their anti-war opus "One" at the 31st GRAMMY Awards. For a quieter performance, catch Beck at the 39th GRAMMYs for his "Where It's At." And who could forget Bob Dylan's Soy-Bombed performance of "Love Sick" at the commemorative 40th GRAMMY Awards?

There's Bruce Springsteen's uplifting performance of "The Rising" at the 45th GRAMMY Awards, along with Coldplay and the New York Philharmonic's sonically masterful rendering of "Politik" the same year. Marking a signature moment, the 45th GRAMMYs also featured a super group of rock royalty paying tribute to the Clash, with Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl, Steven Van Zandt, and Tony Kanal presiding over "London Calling."

At the 46th GRAMMYs, the White Stripes played their now-classic "Seven Nation Army." Representing the female bada**es of the genre, Joss Stone and Melissa Etheridge teamed for a medley of "Crybaby/Piece Of My Heart" at the 47th GRAMMY Awards.

The Police shone the red light on the 49th GRAMMY Awards when they performed their classic hit "Roxanne." The next year, at the milestone 50th GRAMMYs, the Foo Fighters got down and dirty for a performance of "The Pretender." Arcade Fire showed what they were made of at the 53rd GRAMMY Awards with "Ready To Start."

The Lumineers turned the genre on its head with a little alternative flare when they performed "Ho Hey" at the 55th GRAMMYs. That same year, the Black Keys hooked up with the inimitable Dr. John and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band for "Lonely Boy."

Imagine Dragons literally lit the stage on fire at the 56th GRAMMYs with Kendrick Lamar for an explosive reimagining of "Radioactive." Rounding out the collection is Alabama Shakes' earthshaking version of "Don't Wanna Fight" at the 58th GRAMMY Awards.

All of these performances and more are available now, only on Apple Music. Watch on Applemusic.com/GRAMMYs.

The 60th GRAMMY Awards will take place at New York City's Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Jan. 28. The telecast will be broadcast live on CBS at 7:30–11 p.m. ET/4:30–8 p.m. PT. 

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Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban

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Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Mary Lambert, Madonna, and Queen Latifah perform at the 56th GRAMMY Awards

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GRAMMY Performances Available Via Apple Music apple-music-exclusive-watch-classic-grammy-performances

Apple Music Exclusive: Watch Classic GRAMMY Performances

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The Recording Academy teams with Apple Music to offer historical GRAMMY performances by Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston, Shania Twain, Kendrick Lamar, and more
Tim McPhate
GRAMMYs
Nov 24, 2017 - 6:00 am

To celebrate the GRAMMY Awards' 60th anniversary and the show's return to New York for the first time in 15 years, the Recording Academy and Apple Music are bringing fans a special video collection of exclusive GRAMMY performances and playlists that represent the illustrious history of Music's Biggest Night.

Available exclusively via Apple Music in a dedicated GRAMMYs section, the celebratory collection features 60-plus memorable performances specifically curated across six genres: pop, rap, country, rock, R&B, and jazz. 

The artist performances featured in the collection include Marvin Gaye, "Sexual Healing" (25th GRAMMY Awards, 1983); Whitney Houston, "Greatest Love Of All" (29th GRAMMY Awards, 1987); Run DMC, "Tougher Than Leather" (30th GRAMMY Awards, 1988); Miles Davis, "Hannibal" (32nd GRAMMY Awards, 1990); Shania Twain, "Man, I Feel Like A Woman" (41st GRAMMY Awards, 1999); Dixie Chicks, "Landslide" (45th GRAMMY Awards, 2003); Bruno Mars and Sting, "Locked Out Of Heaven" and "Walking On The Moon" (55th GRAMMY Awards, 2013); and Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker The Berry" (58th GRAMMY Awards, 2016).

The 60th GRAMMY Awards will take place at New York City's Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018. The telecast will be broadcast live on CBS at 7:30–11 p.m. ET/4:30–8 p.m. PT. 

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George Avakian photographed in 2009

George Avakian

Photo: Brian To/FilmMagic

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Former Academy Chair George Avakian: 1919–2017 george-avakian-producer-talent-scout-past-academy-chair-dies

George Avakian: Producer, Talent Scout & Past Academy Chair Dies

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Trustees Award recipient who played a role in the careers of Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck and Bob Newhart has died at age 98
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Nov 22, 2017 - 8:01 pm

Esteemed record producer, talent scout, manager, and past Recording Academy Chairman/President George Avakian has died, according to The New York Times. While no cause of death was given, the news was confirmed by his daughter, Anahid Avakian Gregg. He was 98 years old.

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Born in Armavir, Russia, Avakian immigrated with his family to the United States as an infant. Growing up an avid jazz fan, he was already a published jazz critic by the time he was a sophomore at Yale University.

Avakian's career as a producer and talent scout began in 1939 when he convinced Decca Records to let him record prominent jazz musicians on the Chicago scene, which became a six-set of recordings titled Chicago Jazz. According to critics and historians, this is considered as the first jazz album.

Throughout his storied eight-decade-plus career with labels such as Decca, Columbia Records, Warner Bros. Records, RCA Records, and Sony Legacy, Avakian worked with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Dave Brubeck, Sonny Rollins, Bob Newhart, Johnny Mathis, John Cage, and Ravi Shankar, among other music legends. 

In the process, he helped cultivate influential recordings such as Armstrong's Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (1954), Ellington's Ellington At Newport (1956), Brubeck's Brubeck Plays Brubeck (1956), and Davis' Miles Ahead (1957), and Rollins' On The Outside (1966).

Also heralded for popularizing liner notes, he earned one career GRAMMY at the 39th GRAMMY Awards for Best Album Notes for The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings by Davis and Gil Evans. He was honored with the Recording Academy's Trustees Award in 2009 for his outstanding contributions to the music industry during his lifetime. 

A great friend to the Academy, Avakian served as the seventh Chairman/President of the organization from 1966–1967. 

"In a career spanning more than 40 years, George achieved several notable milestones including popularizing liner notes, helping establish long-playing albums as the industry standard, and developing the first jazz reissue series," said Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow. "We have lost an integral member of our creative community. Our condolences go out to George's family, friends, and fellow collaborators."

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The Charlie Parker Quintet (L-R): Tommy Potter, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Duke Jordan

The Charlie Parker Quintet (L-R): Tommy Potter, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Duke Jordan

 

Photo: William Gottlieb/Redferns/Getty Images

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The Law That Discriminated Against Black Jazz Acts how-police-used-cabaret-card-law-discriminate-against-black-jazz-artists-and-musicians

How The Police Used The Cabaret Card Law To Discriminate Against Black Jazz Artists And Musicians

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Introduced in New York City in 1940, the cabaret card changed the course of jazz history and directly impacted some of the genre's giants like Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and many others
John Ochoa
GRAMMYs
Jun 11, 2020 - 6:00 am

In the midst of the nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice, specifically against Black people and people of color, the music and entertainment worlds are taking stock of the inherent, decades-long racism baked into their cores. To understand just how we got to where we are today, it's important to trace some of the racist laws and practices that have contributed to create an industry afflicted with racial inequality. 

One such law, in place from 1940 to 1967, impacted the jazz world in New York City, then predominantly composed of Black musicians and artists, for decades, changing the course of jazz history and directly affecting some of the genre's giants like Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and many others. 

Introduced in New York City in 1940, the cabaret card was a form of identification required for all musicians and entertainers to work in a nightclub or similar establishments where alcohol was served, the primary venues jazz musicians relied upon to make a living. The cabaret card was an extension of the New York City Cabaret Law, a law instituted in 1926, during the Prohibition era in the U.S., that banned dancing across the majority of the city's bars and clubs. (The law, itself criticized for targeting largely Black jazz clubs and denounced by opponents as having racist origins, was ultimately repealed in 2017.)

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) administered the cabaret cards, requiring people to go to a police station to get photographed, finger-printed and interviewed in order to receive their permits. They also held the power to revoke the cards, an authority the police would regularly enact on jazz musicians at their whim over things like narcotics charges.

"For musicians, the fates of their careers now lay in the hands of the police," GRAMMY-winning jazz bassist Christian McBride explains in a video short (watch above) from NPR Music's "Jazz Night In America" series, which he hosts.

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The introduction of the cabaret card was part of an attempt to "sanitize" New York City's nightlife, Nate Chinen, the award-winning jazz music writer and critic and director of editorial content at New York City jazz public radio station WBGO, writes. In his 2012 feature for JazzTimes on the history and impact of the cabaret card on jazz, Chinen spoke about the cultural and musical implications of the law. 

"As an embodiment of the institutional distrust stirred up by jazz musicians, especially African-Americans, it's a key to our understanding of the odds those musicians faced in civil society," he said of the cabaret card. "The administration of the card, governed by a mysterious and often intransigent bureaucracy, more or less imposed the conditions of a police state in which music-making was cast as a privilege rather than a right. And because it kept some of jazz's most important creative figures from active circulation in the music's chief metropolitan hub, the cabaret card should be understood as an agent of historical disruption, its effects reaching not only lives and careers but also, by extension, the development of the art."

Many Black jazz musicians of the time lost their cabaret cards during the law's nearly 30-year run. In 1947, Billie Holiday had her cabaret card revoked following a drug arrest. Even after serving a year in jail, police refused to reinstate her card, which prevented her from performing in nightclubs for more than a decade. After having his cabaret card revoked three times between 1948 and 1958, Thelonious Monk, facing "chronic unemployability and financial hardship," Chinen writes, was forced to perform out of town in cities without cabaret laws or unbilled within the outskirts of NYC boroughs or even under an alias, Ernie Washington.

While the cabaret card law, which was ultimately abolished in 1967, did create scenarios for ousted jazz musicians to meet and collaborate, its strict restrictions may have impeded the growth of both the genre and its greatest artists. 

"What opportunities were stymied by the cabaret card?" Chinen wonders. "How much sooner might Monk have found recognition, and what would the effect have been on his psyche? What if Miles Davis hadn't lost his card in 1959, after being clubbed outside of Birdland: Might he have found more work for his sextet, fresh off the release of Kind Of Blue? Think of the reputations that moldered, the engagements that never came to pass."

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Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy.