The 58th Annual Grammy Award nominations, just announced, find Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift and the Weeknd battling it out for top honors — Lamar holds 11 nominations, while Swift and the Weeknd each have seven.
Here in the Bay Area, there’s plenty of celebrating as well. In anticipation of the big night when winners are announced (Feb. 15 on CBS), here’s eight of today’s Grammy nominees from the Bay Area.
Kehlani – ‘You Should Be Here’
Best Urban Contemporary Album
Kehlani grew up in Oakland, reps the Town pretty hard and only recently relocated to L.A. to record her major-label debut. You Should Be Here was originally released as a mixtape for free download, and Kehlani has been selling out shows both on her own and with Richmond’s HBK Gang ever since. (Read our review from a July show in San Francisco here.) “I jus got to London it’s 1:47 pm and I’m on the ground shaking and crying… I don’t even know what to do with myself. Grammy nominated before 21,” she posted on Instagram today, adding later: “I’m doing it all for my city, my family and every little girl out there who is told she can’t succeed.”
Director Colin Tilley (Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”)
Best Music Video
“Alright” is pretty much the anthem for 2015, and its video, directed by Berkeley native Colin Tilley and partially shot on Treasure Island, is definitely one of the year’s best. With scenes of the San Francisco skyline and wide-angle pans of local turf dancers and extras, “Alright” had the hip-hop world abuzz the week of its release over its surreal vignettes and unpredictable twists. “It’s an incredible feeling to put everything you got into a project and see it pay off with more opportunities to keep growing as an artist. I’ve directed over 200 music videos in the last 7 years. But this one was just special,” Tilley said today on Instagram. “The Grammys though! Real Berkeley.”
Joshua Redman – “Friend or Foe”
Best Improvised Jazz Solo
Berkeley High graduate Redman is no stranger to the Grammy nominations, but this year’s nod shows just how far he’s come. Previously nominated in 1993 and 2005 for his albums Joshua Redman and Momentum, respectively, Redman this year is honored for his solo on “Friend or Foe,” a highlight of his excellent album with the Bad Plus. (Hear it here.) Redman’s a humble guy, but when he and the Bad Plus settle in for a four-day residency at SFJAZZ this week, expect the Bad Plus to congratulate him on the Grammy nomination with their trademark wry humor.
Los Tigres del Norte – ‘Realidades’
Best Regional Mexican Music Album
Since immigrating to the U.S. in the late 1960s, San Jose quintet Los Tigres del Norte have been the world’s best-known purveyors of narcocorridos — the storytelling songs of the drug trade that made headlines earlier this year when Mexican drug kingpin El Chapo escaped from prison, eliciting many tributes in song — as well as songs of love, death, and the immigrant experience. It’s no surprise to see Los Tigres on the Grammy list; they usually fill large arenas, often performing for as long as four hours per show.
David Balakrishnan – “Confetti Man” (Turtle Island Quartet)
Best Instrumental Composition
The Turtle Island Quartet are a 30-year Bay Area institution with two Grammy wins beneath their collective belt (for A Love Supreme: The Legacy Of John Coltrane and 4+Four), and founder David Balakrishnan has been nominated twice for best instrumental arrangement. Here, he’s honored for the two-part composition “Confetti Man,” from the album of the same name and inspired by a painting by his wife. Hear it here.
George Manahan & San Francisco Ballet Orchestra – ‘Ask Your Mama’
Best Engineered Album (Classical)
The poem cycle Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz by American great Langston Hughes features the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra under the direction of George Manahan, and was recorded at Skywalker Sound in Marin County. Hughes’ original text, about the African-American tradition of invoking one’s mama as an insult, featured Hughes’ notes in the margins about his ideas for musical accompaniment; composer Laura Karpman followed those notes for this release. The recording features soprano Janai Brugger, jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon, and Questlove and Black Thought from the Roots.
Cam – “Burning House”
Best Country Solo Performance
It’s not often that a Bay Area artist makes waves in the country category, and Cam seemed just as surprised as anyone to be included on this year’s list of nominees. “Will you guys double check this? Am I actually nominated for a Grammy???” she posted on Facebook. “AHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Cam, born Camaron Ochs, grew up climbing redwood trees and singing in the Contra Costa Children’s Choir in the East Bay; by 2010, she was playing the Stork Club and Mama Buzz Cafe in Oakland while living in Temescal and making the rounds at Cafe du Nord. “Burning House” also features a string arrangement by Hamilton Ulmer, of Oakland band Makeunder. Hear it here.
The Grateful Dead – ‘30 Trips Around the Sun’
Best Boxed or Special Limited-Edition Package
This 80-disc box set contains one full live show per year from the Dead’s touring era with Jerry Garcia, from 1966 through 1995, ending with the last song the band ever performed live, “Box of Rain.” (If 80 discs seems like overkill, there’s also a 4-CD version with the set’s highlights.) Housed in a custom box that looks like something the band might’ve kept their stash in, the discs are accompanied by a 288-page book with liner notes, remembrances from fans, and an essay by Dead archivist Nicholas Meriwether.
