Monday, February 11, 2013

Grammy 2013 Post Mortem

I watched the 2013 edition of the Grammys last night.   It was an overly long show full of the good and ugly moments that make up the Grammys.  Among the fine surprises were the tribute to Bob Marley which included Bruno Mars, Sting and Rhianna along with Marley's sons Ziggy and Damian....Blues rock titans The Black Keys joined by a colorful Dr. John in full New Orleans voodoo headdress along with the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band....Jazz masters Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Kenny Garrett jammin' without a drummer...so sublime!  Who could also forget JLo's leg, Katy Perry's cleavage, Nas's cool tux, Ellen DeGeneres making Beyonce nervous, Folk revivalists Mumford and Sons and The Lumineers demonstrating why they are hot right now, Wiz Kalifa's cool take on the 80's Boy George hat, guest presenter Prince making a fashion statement in a black hoodie ensemble and carrying a silver cane and Juanes showing off his singer/songwriter side in English.  There were plenty of cheesy moments that was the subject of all my facebook friends who were wickedly putting down the badly sung songs,  the blown jokes by star presenters who should know better and all the other absurdities that was part of the broadcast.  But isn't that what The Grammys are all about?  Not really.  There were categories that we didn't see on TV that were important to some of us.  It would have been nice to see some Latin music in the mix this year.  Some of our fine local artists, musicians and producers in all genres were nominated this year.  They didn't make it to 3 1/2 hours of television glitz.  What the Grammys are is just entertainment.  The real substance behind the music and the most exciting music out today doesn't make it to our TV screens.   For a fleeting moment, host LL Cool J's throwback to hard core rap with Public Enemy's Chuck D, guitar whiz Tom Morello, dj QTip and Blink 42 drummer Travis Barker just made it before the closing credits were ran.  That's the Grammy's for you.