The 2023 Grammy Awards nominations, announced November 15, include 26 nominations of artists and/or recordings across five jazz categories. But jazz or jazz-adjacent performers also appeared frequently in many additional categories.
The jazz artist who picked up the most nominations this year is pianist John Beasley, with a total of three: Best Improvised Jazz Solo, Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, and Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella—all in relation to his album Bird Lives, a Charlie Parker tribute recorded with trombonist Magnus Lindgren and the SWR Big Band.
Singers Samara Joy and Cécile McLorin Salvant; the team of keyboardist DOMi and drummer JD Beck; keyboardist Robert Glasper; drummers Marcus Baylor and Terri Lyne Carrington; pianist Leo Genovese; and saxophonist/composers Wayne Shorter, Miguel Zenón, and Remy Le Boeuf each received two nominations. Of these, Carrington and Zenón are the only ones to be nominated for two different projects. Carrington’s name shows up on a pair of Best Jazz Instrumental Album nominees: her own new STANDARDS Vol. 1 and Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival, a quartet offering with Shorter, Genovese, and bassist esperanza spalding. Zenón’s Música de las Américas is up for a Best Latin Jazz Album Grammy, while his piece El País Invisible, released as a separate single, is nominated for Best Instrumental Composition.
Joy and the DOMi/Beck duo both won nods for one of the ceremony’s top awards, Best New Artist. In addition, Joy was nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Album, while DOMi and Beck earned a Best Contemporary Instrumental Album nomination. Salvant is also among the contenders for Best Jazz Vocal Album, as well as Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals for “Optimistic Voices/No Love Dying,” from her 2022 album Ghost Song. Glasper’s Black Radio III was nominated for Best R&B Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. And Le Boeuf is in the running for both Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album (Architecture of Storms) and Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella (“Minnesota, WI”). In an interesting twist, Le Boeuf’s identical-twin brother Pascal also made this year’s list, with his composition “Snapshots” showing up in the Best Instrumental Composition field.
In other “outlier” categories, Norah Jones’ I Dream of Christmas was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, Terrace Martin’s Drones was nominated for Best Progressive R&B Album; Ranky Tanky’s Live at the 2022 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival was nominated for Best Regional Roots Music Album; and Jane Ira Bloom’s Picturing the Invisible – Focus 1 was nominated for Best Immersive Audio Album. Both Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones and Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X earned nods for Best Opera Recording. And Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern’s documentary Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story has been nominated for Best Music Film.
Besides the five genre-specific categories (Best Improvised Jazz Solo, Best Jazz Vocal Album, Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, and Best Latin Jazz Album), jazz artists swept the nominations for both Best Contemporary Instrumental Album and Best Instrumental Composition. The full list of nominees for those categories is below.
The 2023 Grammy Awards will be presented at a televised ceremony in Los Angeles, Calif., on Sunday, Feb. 5. Go here to see the complete list of nominees.
BEST IMPROVISED JAZZ SOLO
Ambrose Akinmusire: “Rounds (Live)” (from Terri Lyne Carrington’s new STANDARDS Vol. 1)
Gerald Albright: “Keep Holding On” (from Hank Bilal’s The Black Aquarius)
Melissa Aldana: “Falling” (from 12 Stars)
Marcus Baylor: “Call of the Drum” (from the Baylor Project’s The Evening: Live at APPARATUS)
John Beasley: “Cherokee/Koko” (from Bird Lives)
Wayne Shorter and Leo Genovese: “Endangered Species” (from Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival)
BEST JAZZ VOCAL ALBUM
The Baylor Project: The Evening: Live at APPARATUS
Samara Joy: Linger Awhile
Carmen Lundy: Fade to Black
The Manhattan Transfer with the WDR Funkhausorchester: Fifty
Cécile McLorin Salvant: Ghost Song
BEST JAZZ INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM
Terri Lyne Carrington: new STANDARDS Vol. 1
Peter Erskine Trio: Live in Italy
Redman/Mehldau/McBride/Blade: LongGone
Wayne Shorter/Terri Lyne Carrington/Leo Genovese/esperanza spalding: Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival
Yellowjackets: Parallel Motion
BEST LARGE JAZZ ENSEMBLE ALBUM
SWR Big Band/Magnus Lindgren/John Beasley: Bird Lives
Ron Carter & the Jazzaar Festival Big Band: Remembering Bob Freedman
Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra: Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra
Steve Gadd/Eddie Gomez/Ronnie Cuber/WDR Big Band: Center Stage
Remy Le Boeuf’s Assembly of Shadows: Architecture of Storms
BEST LATIN JAZZ ALBUM
Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra: Fandango at the Wall in New York
Danilo Pérez Featuring the Global Messengers: Crisálida
Flora Purim: If You Will
Arturo Sandoval: Rhythm & Soul
Miguel Zenón: Música de las Américas
BEST CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM
Jeff Coffin: Between Dreaming and Joy
DOMi & JD Beck: NOT TiGHT
Grant Geissman: Blooz
Brad Mehldau: Jacob’s Ladder
Snarky Puppy: Empire Central
BEST INSTRUMENTAL COMPOSITION
Paquito D’Rivera: “African Tales” (from Tasha Warren & Dave Eggar’s Ourself Behind Ourself, Concealed)
Miguel Zenón: El País Invisible
Danilo Pérez: “Fronteras (Borders) Suite: Al-Musafir Blues” (from Crisálida)
Geoffrey Keezer: “Refuge” (from Playdate)
Pascal Le Boeuf: “Snapshots” (from Tasha Warren & Dave Eggar’s Ourself Behind Ourself, Concealed)
