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Matthew Morrison

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Exclusive GRAMMY.com Interview With Matthew Morrison

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Actor and singer/songwriter discusses his new album, Where It All Began, and collaborating with GRAMMY-winning producer Phil Ramone
THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:06 pm

Actor and singer/songwriter Matthew Morrison recently visited The Recording Academy's headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif., to participate in an exclusive GRAMMY.com interview. Morrison discussed collaborating with the late 14-time GRAMMY-winning producer Phil Ramone and Smokey Robinson on his new album, Where It All Began.

"The late Phil Ramone was an absolute genius," said Morrison. "He really brought the best out in me. We dug deep and he brought me into Capitol Records to record with 'the Frank Sinatra' microphone. It was a really cool recording process."

Although known for his portrayal of optimistic glee club director Will Schuester on the hit TV show "Glee," Morrison first gained fame performing in several Broadway musicals, including "Footloose" and "Hairspray." A California native, Morrison released his self-titled debut album in 2011, peaking at No. 24 on the Billboard 200, with duets featuring Gwyneth Paltrow and GRAMMY winners Elton John and Sting. In 2012 Morrison became the first artist to sign with Adam Levine's record label, 222 Records.

Released June 4 and produced by Ramone (Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Paul Simon), Morrison's sophomore album, Where It All Began, features a collection of 12 Broadway standards, including the lead single "It Don't Mean A Thing," " Luck Be A Lady" and "Ease On Down The Road," a duet featuring GRAMMY winner Robinson.  

GRAMMYs

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Matthew Morrison - On New Album "Where It All Began" | GRAMMYs

Morrison will perform select dates in June and July. He is also scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in November.

GRAMMYs

Pharrell Williams

Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images

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The Producer Of The Year Category Turns 40

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Pharrell Williams bids to join select company as the GRAMMYs prepares to crown the 40th Producer Of The Year recipient
Paul Grein
GRAMMYs
Feb 27, 2016 - 7:41 pm

Pharrell Williams could be headed for the GRAMMY history book this year. Williams is nominated for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical, an award he previously won in 2003 as a member of the Neptunes (with Chad Hugo). If Williams wins this year, he'll become only the third producer to win in this category both on his own and with a partner. The first two were Quincy Jones (he won twice on his own and once with Michael Jackson) and Babyface (he won three times on his own and once with L.A. Reid).

This year's other nominees are Rob Cavallo, Dr. Luke, Ariel Rechtshaid, and Jeff Tweedy. This is the fifth nomination in this category for Cavallo (who won in 1998), the third for Williams and the second for Dr. Luke. Rechtshaid and Tweedy are first-time nominees in the category.

The 56th GRAMMY Awards will mark the 40th year that the award for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical will be presented. That milestone is a good excuse to look back at the winners and nominees in the category through the years.

The Recording Academy added the Producer Of The Year category in 1974, 16 years after the inaugural GRAMMY Awards. The nominees that first year were Thom Bell, Rick Hall (who will receive a Recording Academy Trustees Award this year), Billy Sherrill, Lenny Waronker, and Stevie Wonder. On March 1, 1975, Bell was announced as the first winner.

Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical is now one of the night’s most anticipated awards. (The Non-Classical portion of the title was added in 1980 to distinguish the category from Producer Of The Year, Classical, which was introduced in 1979.)

Babyface has won Producer Of The Year four times, more than anyone else. He and Reid won as a team in 1992, when their credits included the Boomerang soundtrack and hits by TLC and Bobby Brown. Babyface won on his own three years in a row, from 1995 through 1997. (He’s the only producer to win the award in back-to-back years — much less score a “three-peat.”)

Jones and David Foster are close behind, with three Producer Of The Year victories each. Peter Asher, Arif Mardin and Rick Rubin have each won the award twice.

Jones was the first two-time winner in the category and also the first three-time winner.

Foster, who was born in Victoria, British Columbia, has won the award more times than any other producer who was born outside of the U.S.

Mardin holds the record for the longest span of Producer Of The Year awards: 27 years. He first won in 1975 (when his credits included albums by Bee Gees and Average White Band) and again in 2002 (the year of Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me).

Mardin set another record in 2002 as the oldest Producer Of The Year winner. He was 70 at the time.

The youngest winners of Producer Of The Year to date are Steve Lukather and Steve Porcaro of Toto and Michael Jackson. All were just 25 when they won.

Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis have received the most nominations for Producer Of The Year: 11. Jones and Foster are runners-up, with eight each. Babyface is next in line, with six.

Nigel Godrich, best known for his work with Radiohead, holds the bittersweet distinction of the most nominations without a win: five.

Wonder, who won in 1976, was the first self-produced artist to win. Many others have followed his lead, including last year’s winner, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.

Four self-produced artists have won in tandem with creative partners: Bee Gees (with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson), Jackson (with Jones), Lionel Richie (with James Anthony Carmichael) and Phil Collins (with Hugh Padgham).

Other twosomes to have won are Jam & Lewis, who had played together in the Time; Babyface & Reid, who had played together in the Deele; Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois; and the Neptunes (Williams and Hugo), who are members of N.E.R.D.

Producer Of The Year winners have diverse backgrounds. Before becoming a top producer, Asher played a part in the British Invasion as one-half of Peter And Gordon. Foster and the members of Toto were in-demand studio musicians. Jones was a top arranger and Hollywood film scorer.

Prior to winning Producer Of The Year, many recipients had previously won GRAMMYs in other capacities. Phil Ramone and Neil Dorfsman had won as engineers; Steve Lillywhite and Brendan O’Brien as engineer/mixers; and Larry Butler, Toto’s David Paich and Narada Michael Walden as songwriters.

Producer Of The Year winners have come from all over the world. Asher, Collins & Padgham, Eno, Lillywhite, Mark Ronson, and Paul Epworth were born in England. Foster and Lanois were born in Canada; Bell in Jamaica; Mardin in Turkey; Bee Gees in Isle of Man; Ramone in South Africa; and Walter Afanasieff in Brazil.

Six women have been nominated for Producer Of The Year (though, as yet, no woman has taken home the award). Janet Jackson was the first woman to be nominated. Jackson, Jam and Lewis were cited as a team in 1989 — the year of her hit-laden album, Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814.

In a similar fashion, Mariah Carey and Afanasieff were nominated as a team in 1991 — the year of her sophomore album, Emotions.

Paula Cole was the first woman to make the Producer Of The Year finals on her own. She was nominated in 1997, the year of her breakthrough album, This Fire.

In 1998, for the first (and, so far, only) time, the Producer Of The Year finals included two women: Sheryl Crow and Lauryn Hill. Crow was nominated for her work on The Globe Sessions; Hill for her work on The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill and Aretha Franklin's "A Rose Is Still A Rose."

The sixth and most recent instance of a woman receiving a Producer Of The Year nomination came in 2003 when the writing/producing team the Matrix, which includes Lauren Christy, were nominated. The team's work that year included tracks by Liz Phair and Hilary Duff.

There have been two ties for Producer Of The Year. In 1984 Foster tied with Carmichael & Richie. In 1992 Babyface & Reid tied with Eno & Lanois. 

Sadly, seven past winners for Producer Of The Year are no longer with us: Larry Butler, Maurice Gibb, Robin Gibb, Jackson, Mardin, Jeff Porcaro, and Ramone.

As noted above, The Recording Academy added the Producer Of The Year, Classical category in 1979. James Mallinson was the first winner. Robert Woods and Steven Epstein are tied for the most wins in the category with seven each. There have been three female winners: Judith Sherman (three times), Joanna Nickrenz (twice) and Elaine L. Martone (once).

View a complete list of winners for the Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical and Classical categories.

(Paul Grein, a veteran music journalist, writes for Yahoo Music.)

GRAMMYs

Matthew Morrison

Photo: Lester Cohen/WireImage.com

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GRAMMY Camp New York Gets Gleeful With Matthew Morrison

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"Glee" star kicks off inaugural East Coast installment of summer music experience
Crystal Larsen
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:06 pm

On Aug. 2 Matthew Morrison of "Glee" will be in attendance at the first-ever New York installment of GRAMMY Camp to welcome participants and perform an acoustic set during Open Mic Night at Converse Rubber Tracks in Brooklyn, N.Y. Morrison is currently on tour in support of his self-titled debut album, which features duets with GRAMMY winners Elton John and Sting, and GRAMMY-nominated actress/singer Gwyneth Paltrow.

GRAMMY Camp in New York will be held in Brooklyn, N.Y., from Aug. 2–8 as a seven-day residential program for high school students that offers campers the opportunity to work in integrated industry teams in the following three fields: Music Business & Production, Singer/Songwriter, and Performance — Instrumental or Vocal. This real-world, hands-on environment will involve an in-depth look at the entire creative process from the first spark of original material through the promotion of a finished product.

GRAMMY Camp in New York will culminate on Aug. 7 with a Launch Party at Best Buy Theater in Times Square. Guest professionals will attend the launch party and participate in a networking session with the GRAMMY Camp participants, including Dan Cherry, chief marketing officer, New York Cosmos; Phylicia Fant, vice president of publicity, Warner Bros. Records; Jeff Franzel, songwriter/composer; Angela Hunte-Wisner, GRAMMY-winning songwriter; Jeanne Meyer, executive vice president of corporate communications, Current Media; and Rusty Rueff, Vice Chair, GRAMMY Foundation Board.

This year the GRAMMY Foundation selected 111 talented high school students from 93 cities and 34 states across the United States to participate in the seventh annual GRAMMY Camp. GRAMMY Camp Los Angeles took place July 9–18 at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.

GRAMMY Camp is supported in part by Best Buy, Converse and the Hot Topic Foundation. This year, financial assistance for GRAMMY Camp was provided by ASCAP, BET, the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Fund, the Ford Motor Company Fund, the Hot Topic Foundation, and KCRW, as well as several individual donors.
 

GRAMMYs

Al Schmitt, Maureen Droney, Chris Lord-Alge, Phil Ramone, Ken "Duro" Ifill, Steve Lillywhite, and Ann Mincieli

Photo: Bobby Bank/WireImage.com

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Life-Altering Songs

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Producers and engineers share career-defining songs at GRAMMY SoundTables: Sonic Imprints: Songs That Changed My Life at AES Convention
Janice Brown
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:06 pm

On Oct. 22 the 131st AES Convention played host for the Producers & Engineers Wing's second installment of GRAMMY SoundTables: Sonic Imprints: Songs That Changed My Life.

Taking place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, five-time GRAMMY winner Chris Lord-Alge moderated a discussion and related playlist that spanned jazz great Jimmie Lunceford to rap icon Jay-Z, highlighting seminal moments in the lives and careers of a stellar panel comprising Ken "Duro" Ifill, Steve Lillywhite, Ann Mincieli, Phil Ramone, and Al Schmitt.

Topics explored included what motivated these exceptional producers and engineers to pursue their paths in music production and the songs that were either career milestones or inspirational touchstones in their lives. The answers made for a lively listening session and discussion, as well as a chronicle of audio excellence.

A GRAMMY-winning engineer and owner of Jungle City Studios, Mincieli chose "In My Life" by the Beatles as a highlight to her personal soundtrack. "The Beatles are a big inspiration to me," said Mincieli. "And that's one of my favorite songs — it's inspired me to be who I am."

Legendary 13-time GRAMMY-winning producer Ramone played Harry Nilsson's sublime "Everybody's Talkin'" — which he re-recorded for the soundtrack to the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy. It was Ramone's first production credit, and a collaboration with GRAMMY-winning film composer John Barry.

"Talk about changing your life — seeing the word producer in front of your name is probably the biggest thrill [you'll] have," Ramone said.

Lord-Alge also called the track a favorite, describing it as "a real haunting number by an amazing artist that may be overlooked."

"I didn't record it, but this record changed my life," Schmitt said regarding Henry Mancini's The Music From Peter Gunn. The project, which was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 1998, helped launch the career of Schmitt, who has gone on to win 18 GRAMMY Awards.

"The producer was [Simon] Rady, and the engineer was Bones Howe. They got into a beef over something, and Si fired Bones and brought me in to finish the record," Schmitt recalled. "So I finished the album and went on to do More Music From Peter Gunn and then Breakfast At Tiffany's, and then all the RCA records from Shorty Rogers to Ray Peterson.

"If Bones had stayed with Si, I may not have ever had that opportunity. That album was also the first album to win a GRAMMY for Album Of The Year."

Duro described A Tribe Called Quest's "Check The Rhime" as "the first time that I heard a song where I really noticed the difference in the sound. Up to that point, I'd been experimenting making music with friends and I was interested in production, but this is when I changed gears. I thought maybe if I was an engineer, I could learn how to be a better producer. Once I started interning and being around the studio, my passion turned more to being an engineer and mixer."

Lillywhite produced classic U2 albums such as 1981's October and 1983's War, but "Vertigo," a song from 2004's How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, made for an interesting production tale.

"They were in a pretty down place, and called me in to help finish the album," said the five-time GRAMMY winner. "They played me a song called 'Native Son' and it was a good song, but it sounded sort of stodgy. So I said I'd love to re-record it.

"We cut the track and then spent ages with Bono working on the chorus — we must have had about 30 vocal ideas for the chorus. And then the 'hello, hello' thing — which wasn't a eureka moment, it was just another chorus. It was one of those things we just really turned around."

GRAMMY P&E Wing SoundTable - Sonic Imprints



Later in the program, the audience heard "White Heat," a standout track recorded in 1934 by jazz saxophonist/bandleader Lunceford. It turned out the song inspired a young Schmitt to follow in his uncle's footsteps and become a recording engineer.

"My uncle had a recording studio in Manhattan so I was hanging out in the studio from the time I was 7, watching him record these big bands," Schmitt recalled. "And I wanted to be like him.

"When I was about 11, I heard this song on the radio, and something about it struck me. So I saved my money and I went out and bought it. I had a little portable phonograph, and I would play this record over and over and I would imagine myself as my uncle recording it. I never wanted to do anything else in my life after that."

"Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)," a song from Jay-Z's 1998 album Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life, proved to be another career turning point for Duro.

"At that time, Puffy was kind of running urban radio, using a lot of glossy, catchy sounds [and] disco loops," said Duro. "'Hard Knock Life' was a lot darker. It wasn't what was going on. And people were suggesting it wasn't the right single, but [Jay-Z] stuck to his guns [and] he didn't change what he was doing to satisfy radio. He stood up for the song. And that set an example for me. I started taking stances about what I would and would not do as a mixer for the sake of making the track louder."

Finally, the story shared by Ramone detailing Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are" touched on how a classic love song almost never came to be.

Working together for the first time on 1977's The Stranger, and looking for another track to finish the album, Joel played Ramone what he described as "the worst song I've ever written."

"He thought it was crap, a wedding song," said Ramone. "I said, 'Let's try it.' But when the band started doing their 2/4 society beat, he ran out of the studio and said, 'That's it!' I went in and talked to the drummer about certain samba beats, and Billy ultimately relented to it.

"We finish it and the album stiffs really badly. But [he went] to do this new show called 'Saturday Night Live,' and then they don't have a sketch that can fill the last four minutes. So [Billy] ends up playing 'Just The Way You Are.' And the next day, it's picked up by radio."

"Just The Way You Are" ultimately turned out to be a sonic imprint for not only Ramone, but for millions of listeners as the song became Joel's first Top 10 hit and picked up GRAMMYs for Record and Song Of The Year in 1978.

(Janice Brown is the co-founder of SonicScoop.com, an online magazine and community bridging the New York City-area music, sound and recording industries.)
 

GRAMMYs

Donna Summer

Photo: Larry Marano/WireImage.com

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Stars To Pay Tribute To Barbra Streisand

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"Glee" cast, Herbie Hancock, Barry Manilow, and Donna Summer among artists to perform at 2011 MusiCares Person of the Year tribute during GRAMMY Week on Feb. 11
Crystal Larsen
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:06 pm

(For a complete list of 53rd GRAMMY Awards nominees, please click here.)

The Recording Academy and MusiCares announced performers for the 2011 MusiCares Person of the Year event honoring iconic artist and philanthropist Barbra Streisand, taking place Feb. 11 in Los Angeles, two days prior to the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards.

Artists scheduled to fete the legendary artist are Tony Bennett; singer/actress Kristin Chenoweth; members of the GRAMMY-nominated "Glee" cast Darren Criss, Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison; Herbie Hancock; Diana Krall; Barry Manilow; Donna Summer; Stevie Wonder; and artist Nikki Yanofsky. Streisand, a multi-GRAMMY-winning artist and current GRAMMY nominee, will close the evening with her own special performance. Additional performers will be announced soon.

Proceeds from the annual Person of the Year tribute, now in its 21st year, provide essential support for MusiCares.

The event, a private charity fundraiser, is attended by industry VIPs and others who help support the work of the Recording Academy-affiliated MusiCares Foundation, which offers programs and services to members of the music community, including emergency financial assistance. The MusiCares MAP Fund allows access to addiction recovery treatment and sober living resources for members of the music community regardless of their financial circumstances, and MusiCares Safe Harbor Rooms, at events such as the GRAMMY Awards, offer a support network to those in recovery while they are participating in the production of televised music shows and other major music events.

The MusiCares Person of the Year tribute is one of the most prestigious events held during GRAMMY Week. The celebration culminates with the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011, at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The telecast will be broadcast live on the CBS Television Network at 8 p.m. ET/PT. For information on purchasing tables and tickets to the event, please contact Dana Tomarken at 310.392.3777.

Past MusiCares Person of the Year honorees include: Tony Bennett, Bono, Natalie Cole, Phil Collins, David Crosby, Neil Diamond, Gloria Estefan, Aretha Franklin, Don Henley, Billy Joel, Elton John, Quincy Jones, Luciano Pavarotti, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, Sting, James Taylor, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder and Neil Young.

 

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Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy and its Affiliates. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy and its Affiliates 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 and its Affiliates.