Updated: Several Kansas City musicians were up for 2020 Grammy Awards. Here’s who won
Veteran Kansas City musicians with track records for winning Grammy Awards picked up more trophies in the early ceremonies Sunday afternoon.
But late in the televised portion of the awards that night, 21-year-old producer Justus West of Overland Park, a first-time nominee, did not win for best rap/sung performance. West, who is also a guitarist and singer, had co-produced “Ballin’” by Mustard, featuring Roddy Ricch.
The award in that category went to “Higher,” by DJ Khaled, featuring the late Nipsey Hussle and John Legend.
In the untelevised portion of the awards, Joyce DiDonato, the world-class mezzo-soprano who grew up in Prairie Village, won for best classical solo vocal album for “Songplay.” The album presents Italian arias in the styles of jazz and the American Songbook. She collaborated with jazz musicians Craig Terry (piano), Charlie Porter (trumpet), Chuck Israels (bass) and Jimmy Madison (drums).
DiDonato was previously nominated for eight Grammys and won two.
She’ll return to Kansas City May 29 with the early music band Il Pomo D’Oro for a concert in the Harriman-Jewell Series at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
In addition, “Artifacts: The Music of Michael McGlynn,” the latest album from Charles Bruffy and the Kansas City Chorale, won the Grammy for producer of the year, classical. Well, technically, the award goes to Blanton Alspaugh, who produced “Artifacts” and several other notable albums.
Alspaugh previously won a Grammy for the chorale’s 2012 album “Life and Breath.” Most recently, Bruffy and the chorale won in 2016 for best choral recording for “Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil.”
“Artifacts” explores the Celtic choral tradition. The Star’s classical music columnist Patrick Neas said of McGlynn’s music: “You can hear Ireland’s slate gray sky and emerald landscape in his lush but airy harmonies.”
The chorale’s next concert, “Prairie Bluegrass,” is March 7 and 8. See kcchorale.org for details.
Other Kansas Citians who were nominated for this year’s Grammy Awards but did not win:
▪ Organist Jan Kraybill’s album “The Orchestral Organ,” recorded at the Kauffman Center’s Helzberg Hall on its Casavant organ, was up for three awards: best classical instrumental solo, best immersive audio album and producer of the year (for Marina A. Ledin and Victor Ledin, a category won by the Kansas City Chorale’s producer).
You can see Kraybill in concert at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 2 at Community of Christ Auditorium in Independence. On the program: her homage to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl that night. See jankraybill.com.
▪ Saxophonist Logan Richardson, a KC native, plays on one track of Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s “Ancestral Recall,” which was up for best contemporary instrumental album.
This story was originally published January 26, 2020 at 6:30 PM.
