POLKA GRAMMY GONE!
Tom Coss
http://content.grammy.com/PressReleases/587_645_TrusteeRelease.pdf
The Recording Academy®
3030 Olympic Boulevard • Santa Monica, CA 90404 www.grammy.com
For Immediate Release
NEWS RELEASE
THE RECORDING ACADEMY® ELECTS NEW NATIONAL OFFICERS AND APPROVES
CONTINUED EVOLUTION OF GRAMMY® CATEGORIES AT SPRING TRUSTEES MEETING
Music Video Director/Producer George Flanigen, Music Supervisor/
Composer/Film Music Executive Doug Frank and Engineer/Producer Glenn
Lorbecki Elected National Officers;
GRAMMY-winning Producer Jimmy Jam becomes Chair Emeritus Category
Changes Affect Folk, Latin, and Polka Fields Bringing Total
Number of
Categories to be Recognized in January 2010 to 109
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (June 3, 2009) — The Recording Academy®
announced today that award-winning music video director/producer George
Flanigen was elected Chair of the Board of Trustees, music
supervisor/composer/ film music executive Doug Frank was elected Vice
Chair, and engineer/ producer Glenn Lorbecki was elected
Secretary/Treasurer at its annual spring Trustees meeting. Outgoing
Chair of the Board and five-time GRAMMY® winner Jimmy Jam will become
Chair Emeritus. Additionally, The Academy's Trustees voted to rename and
expand the Folk Field, restructure the Latin Field, and eliminate the
Best Polka Album category. This brings the total number of GRAMMY
categories that will be recognized in January 2010 to 109.
"Through the election of our new National Officers and the focus
squarely on ensuring the Awards process is pertinent within the current
musical landscape, the Board of Trustees continues to demonstrate its
passionate commitment to keeping The Recording Academy a relevant and
responsive organization in our dynamic music community," said Neil
Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. "We welcome our new
slate of officers and the diversity and the depth of music industry
experience they offer, and I look forward to working closely with this
talented new team."
About The National Officers
George Flanigen, newly elected Chair of the Board of Trustees, served as
The Recording Academy Nashville Chapter President from 2006–2008 and
Governor from 1999–2006. Flanigen is co-owner of Deaton Flanigen
Productions Inc., an award-winning, full-service film production company
based in Nashville with projects ranging from music videos, national
commercials, and network television specials. His work with artists such
as Big & Rich, Martina McBride, and Reba McEntire have garnered four
GRAMMY Award nominations in the Best Short Form Music Video. Flanigen's
recent projects include music videos for Kid Rock, Gretchen Wilson, Hank
Williams Jr., and Rascal Flatts. He is currently working on a three-hour
network television special, "The CMA Music Festival."
Newly elected Vice Chair Doug Frank, president of music operations for
Warner Bros. Pictures, has served as Trustee for The Recording Academy
Los Angeles Chapter from 2004–2009 and Governor from 2000–2004. At
WB Pictures, Frank is involved in all aspects of music ranging from the
score to the soundtrack album and has supervised the music for such
feature films as City Of Angels, The Departed, the Matrix trilogy,
Superman Returns, the Harry Potter series, and all of the Batman films.
He formerly
served as head of music for WB Television where he was responsible for
establishing the music identities of shows such as "Growing Pains,"
"Murphy Brown," and "China Beach." Frank began his musical career as a
studio musician, following a formal education in music at Brooklyn
College. Also a songwriter, his songs have been recorded by many artists
including Dionne Warwick and Plácido Domingo.
Glenn Lorbecki, elected Secretary/Treasurer, is president/CEO of Glenn
Sound — a multi-room music/audio post-production facility in Seattle.
He served as Chapter President of The Recording Academy Pacific
Northwest Chapter from 2001–2003, Trustee from 2003–2008 and as Co-
Chair of the Producers & Engineers Wing from 2004–2009. A producer,
studio owner, composer, musician and educator, Lorbecki's engineering
and production career spans more than four decades and he has worked
with such artists as Kenny G, Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day, Heart, Weezer,
and The White Stripes.
Awards
Due to the increasing growth of traditional music, The Academy has split
the category Best Contemporary Folk/Americana into two categories: Best
Contemporary Folk Album and Best Americana Album. Additionally, the Folk
Field has been renamed American Roots Music, which will now include the
Best Traditional Blues Album, Best Contemporary Blues Album and Best
Bluegrass Album categories. In the Latin Field, the Best Latin Urban
Album will now be combined with Latin Rock or Alternative into Best
Latin Rock, Alternative Or Urban Album. To ensure the Awards process
remains representative of the current musical landscape, the Best Polka
Album has been eliminated, which brings the total number of GRAMMY
categories to 109.
The Trustees of The Recording Academy, along with Academy senior staff,
Chapter Regional Directors, Executive Directors, and Chapter Presidents,
met May 18–22 at the semiannual series of meetings with agendas
designed to strategically chart the course of The Academy and its
affiliate corporations.
Established in 1957, The Recording Academy is an organization of
musicians, producers, engineers and recording professionals that is
dedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for
music and its makers. Internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards —
the preeminent peer-recognized award for musical excellence and the most
credible brand in music — The Recording Academy is responsible for
groundbreaking professional development, cultural enrichment, advocacy,
education and human services programs. The Academy continues to focus on
its mission of recognizing musical excellence, advocating for the
well-being of music makers and ensuring music remains an indelible part
of our culture. For more information about The Academy, please visit
www.grammy.com. For breaking news and exclusive content, join the
organization's social networks as a follower on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/thegrammys and a Facebook fan at
www.facebook.grammy.com. ***Photo of new officers available upon request
***
# # #
Media Contact:
Barb Dehgan
The Recording Academy
310.392.3777
SAD NEWS FOR SURE! FROM, TOM COSS OF MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT 06450 USA
Tom Coss
Sturr!!!
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ifmfkpCbdUSxVN9rSLtMRiMTkb3gD98K831G0
No more polka album Grammys for Jimmy Sturr By JOHN ROGERS –
LOS ANGELES (AP) — It's enough to make any serious polka fan shove his
plate of sausage aside, fling his lederhosen in the closet and go out
and shed a few tears in his beer.
The waltz is over for America's Polka King, Jimmy Sturr, not to mention
every other squeezebox-loving, ompah-dancing fanatic who followed the
Grammy Awards each year just to learn whether Sturr would collect yet
another trophy for best polka album of the year.
Moving to ensure that its awards show remains what it called "pertinent
within the current musical landscape," the National Academy of Recording
Arts and Sciences announced Thursday it is eliminating its best polka
album category.
Although posters to Internet sites catering to polka fans (yes, there
are such places) were outraged, Sturr, who is hailed by fans the world
over as the King of Polka, was doing his best to take the news in
stride.
"Sure I feel a little bad, but I'm grateful, man," said the 58-year- old
musician who has won the best polka album trophy 18 of the past 24
years.
"The Academy did a lot, not only recognizing me but recognizing polka
music," he continued. He added that the recognition gave him a chance to
fuse polka with pop, country, rock and folk and broaden the music's
audience as he worked with musicians such as Willie Nelson, Alison
Krauss and Bela Fleck.
Still, he wasn't completely satisfied with the Academy's explanation
that polka was attracting too few entries in its category.
There are millions of polka fans worldwide, Sturr noted, and hundreds of
working polka bands in this country alone. They have taken your
grandfather's music, he said, and merged it with Tex-Mex, rock, Tejano
and other forms to create a distinctly American sound.
As Grammy-nominated player John Gora noted, one of his most popular
polka covers is the rock band Genesis' "Follow You, Follow Me."
"And Phil Collins liked it," he said of the Genesis frontman.
For his part, Sturr said he suspects that if there were 20 people on the
committee that recommended dropping his category, "19 of them have never
been to a polka concert. "
Others speculated that Sturr's amazing record of Grammy wins helped do
in the category.
"I think the fact that it was so dominated by one artist, that kind of
killed the incentive for a lot of people to enter," said Carl Finch,
whose Tex-Mex-Tejano-Conjunto-Polka fusion band Brave Combo upset Sturr
to take the award in 1999 and 2004.
Sturr, meanwhile, says he has no plans to stop entering the Grammys, and
will nominate his next album in whatever category he is allowed to.
That will be the folk music category, said Bill Freimuth, the Academy's
vice president for awards.
Finch, however, worries that that kind of pigeonholing won't go down
well with polka fans, who he says are already fed up with all the
lederhosen and accordion jokes they must endure.
"It's not that the polka world's not used to it," he said of polka not
getting enough recognition. "The polka world expects it. It's like,
'Yeah, the man did it to us again.'"
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. - From,
TOM COSS Of Meriden, Connecticut 06450 USA
Tom Coss
Massachusetts
By MICHAEL McAULIFFE
mmcau...@repub.com Talk about taking
the wind out of the accordion. The National Academy of Recording Arts
and Sciences announced last week it was eliminating the category of best
polka album from the annual Grammy Awards, a decision which might have
more caused a few Western Massachusetts fans to choke on their pierogi.
The action by the academy, taken to "ensure the awards process remains
representative of the current musical landscape," drew a mixed response
from several members of the International Polka Association Hall of Fame
who either live in Western Massachusetts or can trace their roots to the
region.
Jimmy Sturr, a Springfield native who grew up in Florida, N.Y., and is
hailed by fans around the world as the King of Polka, has dominated the
category with 18 wins in the past 24 years. He said he felt "a little
bad, but I'm grateful, man."
"The Academy did a lot, not only recognizing me but recognizing polka
music," said Sturr, who explained that the recognition he received gave
him a chance to fuse polka with pop, country, rock and folk and broaden
the music's audience as he worked with musicians such as Willie Nelson,
Alison Krauss and Bela Fleck.
While many people associate polka with the accordion, Wilbraham resident
Louie Dusseault, the trumpeter known as "Happy Louie," played polka for
a half-century. He was nominated for the best polka album award in 1995
for "Polka Sweethearts," and he was not happy with the academy shelving
the award.
"I feel that the academy's decision to remove the polka category from
their competition is discriminatory against a music genre that has been
part of the American culture for more than a hundred years," he said in
an e-mail. "Polka music has entertained hundreds of thousands of people
over this period of time in dance halls all across the country.
"It has brought an enormous amount of joy and happiness to many families
and will continue to do so. To say polka music is not relevant is just
incorrect."
Eddie Forman, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006, said he
thought the academy could have perhaps joined the music with another
genre to keep the award alive.
"It's disappointing," said the 56-year-old Forman, a lifelong Hadley
resident who started his band, the Eddie Forman Orchestra, when he was
15.
"I think they should have kept the category in there for the simple
reason that it does support polka music," said Billy Belina, an
Easthampton resident who started playing the accordion when he was 8.
But Lenny Gomulka, who did not win the award despite a dozen
nominations, said polka musicians must educate academy members about the
music and its appeal across ethnic groups and to many thousands of
listeners.
"Polka has become an American art form," said Gomulka, who grew up in a
Polish neighborhood in Chicago and now lives in Ludlow. In 1998, Gomulka
penned the state's polka, "Say Hello to Someone in Massachusetts."
Gomulka, an academy member who many years ago formed Lenny Gomulka &
Chicago Push, also believes within a year or two the academy will
reverse the decision and reinstate the polka award.
"I don't think anyone wants to see the music die, even after we're
gone," said the trumpeter who recorded his first album when he was 12.
Carl Finch, whose Tex-Mex-Tejano-Conjunto-Polka fusion band Brave Combo
upset Sturr to take the award in 1999 and 2004, spoke of the impact of
Sturr's Grammy success on other polka musicians.
"I think the fact that it was so dominated by one artist, that kind of
killed the incentive for a lot of people to enter," he said.
Mitch Moskal, a disc jockey who for more than 20 years has had a
Saturday morning polka show on radio station WMUA at the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst, said Sturr's track record has discouraged
other artists. Moskal also said Sturr has worked at promoting himself,
and he has drawn support from beyond the genre.
"He has people outside the polka field voting for him," Moskal said.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report. VERY SAD
NEWS FOR SURE! From, TOM COSS Of MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT 06450 USA
Tom Coss
More Sad News About The Polka Grammy Award! From, TOM COSS
Tom Coss
News Staff Reporter
Polka has waltzed across the Grammy stage for its last time. The
elimination of the best polka album category strikes at the heart of
many Buffalo musicians, as a number of area polka bands and individual
artists have been nominated for the golden statuette record player over
the years.
"It's a slap in the face," said Greg Chwojdak, a Buffalo native and
polka disc jockey. "Polka music has a firm foothold for what makes up
the United States."
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which gives out the
Grammy Awards, said the polka category is being eliminated "to ensure
the awards process remains representative of the current musical
landscape."
Bill Freimuth, the academy's vice president for awards, said the cut was
sad, but necessary as it brought in the fewest entries of any category.
In 2006, only 20 albums were considered with five nominees, of which
only one album was distributed nationwide. Through the next couple of
years, polka squeaked by with more than 25 entries, the minimum
threshold, Freimuth said, for a healthy category.
In the past five years, the highest its reached was 38 entries, and in
January, the numbers dipped again — this time to 23 entries.
"It's certainly not our intention to say that polka as a genre has gone
away, but in the recording industry specifically, its presence has
diminished in the past few years," Freimuth said. "That's why we did
what we did."
Though Freimuth said the genre is not "gone," a kind of industry code
underlines the message that polka — once able to sell million dollar
hits for numerous artists — has dwindled to micro-niche status.
The polka Grammy was first given out in 1986, but in the past decade,
some critics say the field is just "too small to sustain its own
category."
Freimuth said it is not uncommon for a popular artist in any category to
win more than one Grammy, but polka has little variety in its entries.
America's Polka King, Jimmy Sturr, a frequent Buffalo visitor, has
collected 18 awards in the last 24 years, only one fewer than heartland
rock musician Bruce Springsteen.
"We think that's kind of embellished," he said.
Chwojdak, 50, who now lives in Cleveland, also plays in local a polka
band, the Buffalo Concertina All Stars, which has toured the United
States and Europe in the last decade.
"America is not made up of all hip-hop and Top 40 hits. It's a sad day,
yes, but I think polka will survive," he said.
Though the squeezebox-toting enthusiasts may not have a category of
their own, polka entries can be submitted to the folk music category,
against traditional folk, bluegrass and Americana. That's no real
consolation to the polka musicians.
"It's going to get buried alive in there," Chwojdak said. "It's going to
go unrespected and now no longer recognized as a music venue."
Marty Biniasz, founder of Dyngus Day Buffalo, said this is surely a blow
to the polka, but Buffalo residents and area polka musicians should not
fret. He said Buffalo is a safe haven of the genre, citing a large
resurgence for the Polish-style music.
"It has a very loyal fan base, and that won't change," Biniasz said.
"American polka is such a unique art form. It is exciting to go up
against different genres of American folk. If anything, it's going to
make polka stronger."
Freimuth, a Central Pennsylvania native and of German- American descent,
said he knows what it must feel like for the polka musicians of the
area. Freimuth plays tuba himself, and wants to tell area musicians not
to give in because of the lost category.
"Don't lose heart. Don't worry about the Grammy awards," Freimuth said.
"It doesn't mean the music isn't still great. I know it's some of the
happiest music out there. Just because there isn't an individual
category for polka doesn't mean it shouldn't continue."
jm...@buffnews.com - From, TOM COSS of MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT 06450 USA