David Konjoyan is a Recording Academy/GRAMMY.com contributor.
Known variously as the Black Godfather, the Godfather of Black Music and the Godfather of Black Entertainment, industry legend Clarence Avant was a pioneer over some seven decades in entertainment. The manager, label and broadcast media owner, and mentor died on Aug. 13 at age 92. The breadth of Avant’s impact cannot be overstated. For his myriad accomplishments — many…
As a songwriter, guitarist, artist, composer and armchair historian, Robbie Robertson richly impacted music throughout a 50-plus-year career. The multiple GRAMMY nominee and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award died on Aug. 9 at age 80. Those who think of Robertson as the architect of the Band have unquestionably identified his most essential work, but they also risk selling short…
A country music aficionado, fiddler and banker, Jim Stewart somehow became the unlikely incubator of Southern soul music. Stewart was the founder of Memphis, Tennessee’s Satellite Records. That might not ring bells, but when a California label of the same name sued, Stewart changed his company’s name to Stax, a label that would come to define the R&B sound of…
Henry Diltz’s famed career as a rock photographer was a bit of an accident — a happy one, to be sure. Diltz started as a musician, a co-founder of the Modern Folk Quartet. The group’s primary lasting recorded legacy was “This Could Be The Night,” a Phil Spector-produced track with a psychedelic Beach Boys vibe from 1966 that was never…
Even in the company of those who have been honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards, the breadth of Nile Rodgers' musical accomplishments is difficult to fathom. Over the course of a nearly 50-year career, he has lived a number of professional lives. And over the course of those professional lives, he's lived a number of actual lives. His triumph over several…
(In 2005 "Soul Train" founder Don Cornelius was honored with The Recording Academy's Trustees Award. The following tribute ran in the GRAMMY Awards program book that year. "Soul Train" ceased production in 2006. Dan Cornelius died today at the age of 75.)"It's the Soooooooouuuuuul Train!"With that exuberant call, producer Don Cornelius' landmark urban TV dance show "Soul Train" became a…
(In 1999 songwriter/producer Jerry Leiber and partner Mike Stoller were honored with The Recording Academy's Trustees Award. The following tribute ran in the GRAMMY Awards program book that year. Jerry Leiber died today at the age of 78.)It's an unfortunate fact of the music industry that some of the most meaningful and innovative artistic contributions are routinely underestimated, particularly by…
(Editor's note: In 2008, during the 50th celebration of the GRAMMY Awards, Andy Williams, the show's first live host and the face of the GRAMMY telecast for nearly a decade, participated in this lighthearted look back at his career and GRAMMY experience. Williams died Sept. 25 at the age of 84.)Along with original GRAMMY Awards producer Pierre Cossette, Andy Williams…
