Ever since the elimination of 31 award categories from the 2012 Grammies last year, a cut made by the top brass without consulting its voting body, Latin musicians have been in an uproar, and will now hold a separate concert/party in protest of the Grammys. It will be called the Not Those Awards All-Star Latin Jazz Jam, and will be headlined by Ray Carrion and his Latin Jazz All Stars, joined by John Santos, Bobby Matos and Oscar Hernandez. The concert will be held at the club Mama Juana’s. According to the New York Times blog:
“We are holding this concert to remind music fans about all the great music that has been eliminated from the Grammys,” said Mr. Matos, a Bronx-born percussionist and band leader. […] “This is a one-percenter move against the 99 percent in the musical community,” [co-founder of Presente.org] Mr. Lovato said.
Not sure what the invocation of #occupy is supposed to mean, but hey, as Bobby Sanabria said last year “This isn’t just about musical diversity, it’s about cultural diversity…The fact that 70 percent of the 31 categories that have been eliminated by NARAS [The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences] are ethnically or racially based is very alarming.”
So what do you think of the decision? Will you be at the concert? Where’s the zydeco and the Native American music protest concert?