Don’t Sound the Trumpets Just Yet

Despite fairly conservative choices, the jazz Grammy nominations include some generally high-level selections.

The jazz vocal category, for example, includes a nicely rounded group of entries, with the interesting inclusion of albums by a new male singer (Kurt Elling) and a veteran (Mark Murphy). If having two albums in the Top 10 of the jazz charts means anything, Diana Krall, nominated for “Love Scenes,” should be a shoo-in. But overexposure could have a negative impact with academy voters who like to believe in their independence. If so, Dee Dee Bridgewater could sneak in with her Fitzgerald tribute, “Dear Ella.” The most musically deserving is Krall, now clearly on the verge of becoming a top-level jazz artist.

The ever-confusing best instrumental categories--one for a single solo, the other for an album performance--are always little more than a dice toss. Are any of these choices any better than the playing on albums by, say, Kenny Barron, McCoy Tyner, Ray Brown, Nicholas Payton or dozens of others? Probably not.

The sentimental favorite in the solo category has to be the duet on “Stardust” between trumpeters Nicholas Payton and Doc Cheatham, who passed away last year at 91. It wouldn’t be surprising, however, if traditionalists decided to honor one of the two veterans in the field--clarinetist Buddy DeFranco (“You Must Believe in Swing”) or pianist Tommy Flanagan (“Dear Old Stockholm”). In the album grouping, Payton and Cheatham again have a shot, but Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny’s “Beyond the Missouri Sky” and Joe Lovano’s “Celebrating Sinatra” are the clear front-runners.

One vote here for the underappreciated Flanagan in the solo category, and another to Cheatham and Payton’s delightful partnership in the album grouping.

The best large ensemble looks like a toss-up between the Joe Henderson Big Band and the Bill Holman Band. But Henderson’s label-mate on Verve, J.J. Johnson, might siphon away some votes, allowing Holman, or Phil Woods’ Festival Orchestra album, to sneak through. The most intriguing selection in the group, however, is the youthful, energetic music from the Anthony Wilson Band.

The Latin jazz winner will depend on how many votes are cast by members familiar with Latin jazz. Conrad Herwig’s “The Latin Side of John Coltrane” and Roy Hargrove’s “Habana” have the best shot as crossover items. But the most compelling selection is Carlos “Patato” Valdes’ “Ritmo y Candela II: African Crossroads.”