The Recording Academy announced tonight, February 8, the winners of the 2009 Grammy Awards. Mickey Hart’s global percussion project, featuring Zakir Hussain, Sikiru Adepoju, Giovanni Hidalgo and Hart, won the Best Contemporary World Music Album award for the Global Drum Project recording (Shout! Factory).
South African veterans Ladysmith Black Mambazo won the Best Traditional World Music Album with Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu (Heads Up International).
Other winners related with world music include José Feliciano’s Señor Bachata (Universal Music Latino), which won the Best Tropical Latin Album.
The Best Reggae album went to Jah Is Real by Burning Spear (Burning Music Production) .
One of the best roots music recordings of 2008, Raising Sand by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, was awarded the highest honors – Album of the Year and Record of the Year for “Please Read the Letter.” The duo also took home awards for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for “Rich Woman” (a category they also won last year for “Gone Gone Gone”), Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for “Killing the Blues,” and Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album for Raising Sand. The duo also performed tracks “Rich Woman” and “Gone Gone Gone” at the music awards with producer, bandleader and fellow Grammy winner T Bone Burnett along with a stellar cast of musicians including Buddy Miller, Dennis Crouch, and Jay Bellerose.
In the Blues category, B.B. King and Dr. John And The Lower 911 won this year’s awards. B.B. King won Best Traditional Blues Album with One Kind Favor (Geffen Records). Meanwhile, City That Care Forgot by Dr. John And The Lower 911 (429 Records) won the Best Contemporary Blues Album award.
Jimmy Sturr and His Orchestra won Best Polka Album with Let the Whole World Sing
Banjo wizard Béla Fleck & The Flecktones won the Best Pop Instrumental Album award with the recording Jingle All The Way.
Come To Me Great Mystery: Native American Healing Songs” is the winner of the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Native American Music Album. Produced by Tom Wasinger.
The event took place at Staples Center in Los Angeles and was broadcast on the CBS Television Network from 8 – 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).
Established in 1957, The Recording Academy is an organization of musicians, producers, engineers and recording professionals that is dedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers. Internationally known for the Grammy Awards, The Recording Academy is responsible for groundbreaking professional development, cultural enrichment, advocacy, education and human services programs.
Buy the CDs:
- In North America: Global Drum Project, Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu, Señor Bachata, Jah Is Real, Raising Sand, and City That Care Forgot
- In Europe: Global Drum Project, Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu, Senor Bachata, Jah Is Real, Raising Sand, and City That Care Forgot
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central
