THE GRAMMYS | 8 TONIGHT ON WFOR-CBS4
Nominations delight local artists
Some little-known local Latin artists will be vying for Grammys in tonight’s competition. They’re surprised and delighted.
By JORDAN LEVIN
He may not be playing stadiums, but singer and musician Johnny Aguilo has been pretty happy with the following he and his band, Conjunto Progreso, have built in Miami playing the traditional Cuban son that Aguilo’s father and grandfather played.
But he never expected their self-produced album, Masters of Cuban Son -- with a 13-minute version of the Cuban classic Lagrimas Negras that was almost guaranteed to never get on commercial radio -- to be nominated for a Grammy.
’’I was pretty shocked,’’ Aguilo says. ’’It was nothing we or I expected.’’ People magazine called recently, and European labels have shown interest in picking up the record.
Aguilo is not the only local musician who’ll be holding his breath when the Grammy Awards are broadcast on CBS tonight. Five Miami Latin artists are nominated for Grammys this year, all South Florida acts on small independent labels.
While Miami-based artists are often a presence at the Grammys, they tend to be bigger names with more label muscle behind them, like Juanes and Carlos Vives (who are associated more with their native Colombia than their part-time South Florida home).
Sharing nominations for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album with Conjunto Progreso is another Miami orchestra, Tropicana All Stars with Israel Kantor, on Regu Records, another tiny, Miami-based label. Local drummer Sammy Figueroa -- who has played with many artists, including Miles Davis and Mariah Carey, and often plays local venues -- is up for Best Latin Jazz Album along with such revered names as Ray Barretto and Eddie Palmieri.
Tiempo Libre, made up of Miami-based musicians who’ve accompanied bigger local names like Albita and Arturo Sandoval, is nominated for Best Salsa/Merengue Album.
HONOR FOR CHIRINO
So is Willie Chirino, the local salsero who’s exulting in his first Grammy nomination, for Son del Alma, after more than 25 albums and 35 years as a musician -- a hero in the Miami Cuban community who is little known outside South Florida.
Awards for Latin music, along with other smaller categories, will be given out in a ceremony before tonight’s telecast, which will mostly feature mainstream stars like Jay-Z, Linkin Park, Madonna, Kanye West and Coldplay. But that doesn’t lessen the excitement of being nominated for the music industry’s most prestigious honor for the first time.
’’My first -- can you believe that?’’ says Chirino, who has never been nominated for a Latin Grammy either. ....It is very rewarding, very satisfying. To get a Grammy nomination after 35 years is not very common.’’
Some industry sources said competition in the Latin categories was not as fierce this year, leaving the field open to lesser-known acts. But even people in the music industry are hard put to explain why so many little-known Miami names -- the most South Florida Latin artists honored in recent years -- have made it into a national arena this year.
’’I don’t have a real answer,’’ said Mel Carmona, whose Pimienta Records has Conjunto Progreso and Mayito Rivera, singer for famed Cuban band Los Van Van, in contention. Pimienta has racked up 14 Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations since 2002, spread among Miami artists and those from the island.
Carmona thought perhaps because the big record companies were not putting much effort into the traditional tropical, Latin jazz, or salsa/merengue categories -- which are not big commercial sellers -- that left space for independent labels and artists. ’’Maybe people are tired of the same names,’’ he said.
....You don’t see the big multinational labels putting money behind these new artists or some of the old artists.’’
EXPLANATION
The noncommercial nature of these genres suggests an arcane organizational explanation. The Grammys honor 108 categories of music, from polka to classical crossover. Because most members of the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences, who vote for both Grammy nominees and winners, are unfamiliar with specialized genres like Latin music, the Recording Academy appoints committees of specialists to make sure a Tex-Mex act doesn’t get nominated alongside the salseros.
Those specialists are more likely to know obscure and local artists.
’’Whoever votes in the nomination committee, they totally know who these [artists] are,’’ says Gabriel Abaroa, president of the Latin Recording Academy, which produces the Latin Grammys.
....To the experts, Willie Chirino is very well known. So maybe it’s that, or maybe people fell in love with an independent album.’’