Skip to main content
GRAMMYs Breaking News
Breaking News
  • MusiCares Launches Help for the Holidays Campaign Apply HERE
  • Recording Academy
  • GRAMMYs
  • Membership
  • Advocacy
  • MusiCares
  • GRAMMY Museum
  • Latin GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
  • Advocacy
  • Membership
  • GRAMMYs
  • Governance
  • Jobs
  • Press Room
  • Events
  • Login
  • MusiCares
  • GRAMMY Museum
  • Latin GRAMMYs
  • More
    • MusiCares
    • GRAMMY Museum
    • Latin GRAMMYs

The GRAMMYs

  • Awards
  • News
  • Videos
  • Music Genres
  • Recording Academy
  • More
    • Awards
    • News
    • Videos
    • Music Genres
    • Recording Academy

Latin GRAMMYs

MusiCares

  • About
  • Get Help
  • Give
  • News
  • Videos
  • Events
  • Person of the Year
  • More
    • About
    • Get Help
    • Give
    • News
    • Videos
    • Events
    • Person of the Year

Advocacy

  • About
  • News
  • Issues & Policy
  • Act
  • Recording Academy
  • More
    • About
    • News
    • Issues & Policy
    • Act
    • Recording Academy

Membership

  • Join
  • Events
  • PRODUCERS & ENGINEERS WING
  • GRAMMY U
  • GOVERNANCE
  • More
    • Join
    • Events
    • PRODUCERS & ENGINEERS WING
    • GRAMMY U
    • GOVERNANCE
Log In Join
  • SUBSCRIBE

  • Search
See All Results
Modal Open
Subscribe Now

Subscribe to Newsletters

Be the first to find out about GRAMMY nominees, winners, important news, and events. Privacy Policy
GRAMMY Museum
Membership

Join us on Social

  • Recording Academy
    • The Recording Academy: Facebook
    • The Recording Academy: Twitter
    • The Recording Academy: Instagram
    • The Recording Academy: YouTube
  • GRAMMYs
    • GRAMMYs: Facebook
    • GRAMMYs: Twitter
    • GRAMMYs: Instagram
    • GRAMMYs: YouTube
  • Latin GRAMMYs
    • Latin GRAMMYs: Facebook
    • Latin GRAMMYs: Twitter
    • Latin GRAMMYs: Instagram
    • Latin GRAMMYs: YouTube
  • GRAMMY Museum
    • GRAMMY Museum: Facebook
    • GRAMMY Museum: Twitter
    • GRAMMY Museum: Instagram
    • GRAMMY Museum: YouTube
  • MusiCares
    • MusiCares: Facebook
    • MusiCares: Twitter
    • MusiCares: Instagram
  • Advocacy
    • Advocacy: Facebook
    • Advocacy: Twitter
  • Membership
    • Membership: Facebook
    • Membership: Twitter
    • Membership: Instagram
    • Membership: Youtube
GRAMMYs

Ron Asheton

Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

News
detroit-sound-conservancy-documents-motor-citys-legacy

Detroit Sound Conservancy Documents Motor City's Legacy

Facebook Twitter Email
New Kickstarter-funded oral history project to unearth interviews with Detroit music pioneers such as Thomas Beans Bowles, Kenn Cox, Wendell Harrison, and Alma Smith
Bruce Britt
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:06 pm

According to journalist Larry Gabriel, decades ago some Motor City jazz virtuosos coined the phrase "The Detroit Way" to describe a local tradition of passing musical knowledge down to future generations. Now, Gabriel and an ambitious group of fellow Detroit writers are applying that same sharing spirit to a commendable task: documenting the musical history of their beloved city.

Founded by media scholar and author Carleton Gholz, the Detroit Sound Conservancy Oral History Project will provide an online archive dedicated to Motor City musicians that is expected to launch by the end of November. Through its recent Kickstarter campaign, the conservancy raised more than $8,500 — a hefty surplus from the initial $5,000 goal. The funds are being used to transcribe, digitize and conserve oral history interviews that already exist in the private hands of Detroit journalists such as Gabriel.

With more than 100 hours of tapes in its possession, including interviews with the Stooges' Ron Asheton, techno pioneer Ken Collier, blues musician Bobo Jenkins, and the late producer J Dilla, the conservancy hopes to become the gold standard of digital archiving.

"We want to be a resource for best practices when it comes to historical preservation," says Gholz. "Any group will be able to go to our website and learn such things as preserving their tapes, conducting oral histories with people they think are important, or backing stuff up through us." 

Some might question the need for an oral history project dedicated to the music of Detroit. After all, the story of Berry Gordy, Motown Records and its universe of stars is legendary. But according to Gholz, many people are still unaware of Detroit's full musical heritage beyond Motown acts such as the Jackson 5, the Supremes, the Temptations, and Stevie Wonder.

Detroit's musical legacy outside of Motown is staggering, encompassing hitmakers and trendsetters such as Alice Cooper, John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, Madonna, Parliament-Funkadelic, Ted Nugent, Bob Seger, and Patti Smith. Punk music took its cues from Detroit artists such as the MC5 (which aptly stands for the Motor City 5) and Iggy Pop And The Stooges, while Motor City rapper Eminem, hip-hop group Insane Clown Posse and Dilla have proven tremendously successful and influential. Detroit is also cited as the birthplace of techno music, spawning artists such as Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. In recent years, contemporary rockers such as Kid Rock and Jack White have proudly represented the city.

Over the last decade, some of Detroit's more obscure musical stories have curiously revealed themselves. The 2002 documentary Standing In The Shadows Of Motown recounted the untold saga of the Funk Brothers, the backing band who performed on many classic Motown recordings. In 2012 another acclaimed documentary titled A Band Called Death related the tale of a lesser-known African-American trio of brothers from Detroit whose 1974 demo recordings presaged punk. Also in 2012, Searching For Sugar Man told the compelling tale of Detroit native Sixto Rodriguez, whose records made him a surprise hit in South Africa while he lived in obscurity in the states.

Now, with the help of the Detroit Sound Conservancy Oral History Project, many other lesser-known Motor City music stories could be discovered and told.

"Detroit is sort of a victim of its own success," Gholz says. "Because we've been so successful globally, people think things are taken care of historically, which is not true. Most people know the Berry Gordy Motown story or the Eminem 8 Mile story, but they alone don't encompass the diversity, the bizarreness, or the wonderfulness of Detroit music. The Oral History Project is a way of starting the reset button, instead of just assuming that we already know what the story is."

Indeed, history cannot be assumed — a point that is not lost on The Recording Academy. Similar to Gholz's Oral History Project, for nearly a decade the GRAMMY Foundation has been on its own mission to chronicle and document the careers of global music professionals through its own GRAMMY Living Histories program. According to GRAMMY Foundation Senior Vice President Kristen Madsen, to date the Living Histories archive has collected more than 200 stories, spanning generations and musical movements, as told by the individuals who had a hands-on role in shaping our musical history.

Understanding the vital importance of archiving oral music history for future generations, the GRAMMY Foundation commends the Detroit Sound Conservancy and its kindred preservation mission.

"The Detroit Sound Conservancy Oral History Project is poised to capitalize on music's unique power to define our culture, in this particular case as influenced by the unique characteristics of one of our most iconic cities," says Madsen. "It has the potential to reflect the cultural milestones, political markers, social evolutions, and technological innovations as they were manifest during the period by the musicians of Detroit."

For participating DSC journalist Gabriel, one of the most exciting things about the project is its potential to inform non-Detroiters about the city's countless unsung musicians. In 1989 Gabriel videotaped a series of interviews with Detroit jazz legends such as Thomas "Beans" Bowles, Kenn Cox, Wendell Harrison, and Alma Smith, among others. Though tremendously influential on the Detroit scene (Harrison co-founded acclaimed jazz indie label Tribe Records while Bowles was a Motown A&R scout), these musicians are largely unknown beyond the Motor City limits. Though most of them are now deceased, the Oral History Project promises to preserve their accomplishments for posterity.

"People who are great musicians aren't necessarily always famous musicians," Gabriel adds. "Sometimes you've got to go back and rediscover these people, and that's why we have to save this stuff."

To illustrate his point, Gabriel relates the story of Ellariz Lucas, a saxophone player who belonged to the all-female swing group the International Sweethearts Of Rhythm.

"The Sweethearts were sort of a concept trick — like, 'OK, we don't have any guys in the band because they're all off at war, let's form this all-female band,'" he says. "So here we've got [black and white women] in an all-female band during World War II. People have got to know that story. They can't be forgotten. It's wrong to forget them."

To help insure that Lucas and other obscure Motown musicians won't be forgotten, Gholz is making the Detroit Sound Conservancy an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization. He's using donations to provide for website design and hosting, tape conservation and possibly even a brick-and-mortar museum sometime in the future.  

"Cities aren't doing projects like this because arts funding is down and state budgets have been slashed," Gholz says. "On the local level, there's too much to do and [organizations are] understaffed, so we're stepping in to fill that void."

(Bruce Britt is an award-winning journalist and essayist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Billboard, and other publications. He lives in Los Angeles.)

Roland Room exhibit at GRAMMY Museum Mississippi

A student in the Roland Room exhibit at GRAMMY Museum Mississippi

Photo: Rick Diamond/WireImage.com

List
GRAMMY Museum, Foundation support music education music-education-spotlight-grammy-museum-grammy-foundation

Music education spotlight: GRAMMY Museum, GRAMMY Foundation

Facebook Twitter Email
In honor of their merger, we round up 8 ways the GRAMMY Museum and GRAMMY Foundation previously supported music education
THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:36 am

In a newly announced development, the GRAMMY Museum and GRAMMY Foundation are joining forces to offer the best of each organization's initiatives in preservation, education, exhibitions, and public programming. The resulting new GRAMMY Museum Foundation will look to become the leading educational institution dedicated to broadening the historical and cultural significance of music through their combined efforts.

Together in 2016, the GRAMMY Museum and GRAMMY Foundation served nearly 100,000 students through local and national education initiatives. To demonstrate their collective potential, here is a look back at four ways each organization previously raised the flag for music education.

GRAMMY Museum 

Interactive exhibits

The Museum has curated more than 60 exhibits since opening in 2008, including more than 20 that have toured other cultural institutions around the world. For example, Swifties can take a behind-the-scenes look at their favorite artist with The Taylor Swift Experience exhibit, which is currently at GRAMMY Museum Mississippi. Or if you're a hardcore guitar head, the Shining Like A National Guitar exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum might be more your speed.

Educational programs

In its bid to present the "most dynamic and exciting educational programs," the Museum has hosted more than 650 public programs, featuring artist interviews, live performances, film screenings, lectures, and continuing education classes. Upcoming classes cover topics such as networking, pop lyric songwriting and the music of the Civil War.

Jane Ortner Artist and Education Award

Since 2014, the GRAMMY Museum's Jane Ortner Education Award luncheon has honored both an artist and Southern California educator each year. The Artist Award celebrates a performer who has demonstrated passion and dedication to education through the arts, while the Education Award recognizes educators who incorporate music into teaching academic subjects such as the language arts, history, math, and science. Lady Gaga was the 2016 Artist Award recipient.

School tours

The Museum has offered a variety of tour options for schools to maximize the educational potential for attending students. Teachers can take their class on a self-guided tour through the Museum's cutting-edge immersive exhibits or schedule an educational workshop along with their visit, resulting in a one-of-a-kind learning experience.

GRAMMY Museum, GRAMMY Foundation join forces for education

GRAMMY Foundation

Grant Program

In 2016 the GRAMMY Foundation provided 20 grants, totaling $300,000, to facilitate a wide range of research, archiving and preservation projects. Each year, grants have been issued to organizations and individuals to support efforts that advance the archiving and preservation of the music and recorded sound, and research projects related to the impact of music on the human condition.

GRAMMY Camp

For more than 10 years, the Foundation hosted a variety of GRAMMY Camps, including residential and daytime summer programs, which allowed talented high school students to deepen their musical skills. GRAMMY campers receive unprecedented access to professional music creators and participate in once-in-a-lifetime performance opportunities. GRAMMY Camp — Jazz session has brought select students to GRAMMY Week for a series of high-profile performances and an album recording session.

Watch: Maren Morris graduates from GRAMMY Camper to GRAMMY winner

GRAMMY Signature Schools

GRAMMY Signature Schools provided awards and monetary grants to public high school music programs based upon need as well as top public high school music programs. Since 2010, the Foundation awarded more than $1 million in cash grants to more than 600 schools around the country. Some recipient schools have even leveraged their grants into additional funding for their music education programs.

Music Educator Award

Established in 2013 as a joint presentation by the GRAMMY Foundation and The Recording Academy, the Music Educator Award honors outstanding full-time music educators who teach kindergarten through college in public and private schools. The winner and top Music Educator Award finalists are presented with a monetary award plus a trip to the annual GRAMMY Awards. Each of their schools also receive matching grants. Southern California native Keith Hancock was named the 2017 recipient.

Not a GRAMMY Museum member? Learn more

GRAMMY Museum at L.A. Live exterior

GRAMMY Museum at L.A. Live

Photo: Courtesy of the GRAMMY Museum

News
GRAMMY Museum, GRAMMY Foundation combine forces grammy-museum-grammy-foundation-join-forces-education

GRAMMY Museum, GRAMMY Foundation join forces for education

Facebook Twitter Email
Two organizations merge into the GRAMMY Museum Foundation to become the leading educational institution dedicated to broadening the historical and cultural significance of music
THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:36 am

The GRAMMY Museum and GRAMMY Foundation have announced that the two organizations will merge into the newly expanded GRAMMY Museum Foundation, which will offer the best of each organization's initiatives in preservation, education, exhibitions, and public programming. The integrated organization will become the leading educational institution dedicated to broadening the historical and cultural significance of music.

Additionally, the GRAMMY Museum has expanded its executive team, including the appointment of Scott Goldman as Executive Director. Previously Vice President of the GRAMMY Foundation and MusiCares, Goldman will oversee the Museum's development, programming, curatorial services, and strategic planning. Bob Santelli, the Museum's original and previous Executive Director, will transition into the newly created position of Founding Executive Director, focusing on the pursuit of domestic and international market expansions, development of business alliances and strategies, and opportunities for further growth and evolution of the GRAMMY Museum and its missions.

"Both the GRAMMY Museum and GRAMMY Foundation have done such truly remarkable work as individual organizations that we started to think about what we could achieve together," said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. "This integration will allow us to combine our resources and the expertise of our dedicated staffs to increase the impact of our shared vision: to cultivate a greater understanding of the history and cultural significance of music, inspire its appreciation and advance its future."

"By bringing together these two organizations that have already made a lasting impact as individual entities, we stand to achieve tremendous gains as well as scale our efforts," said Goldman. "I'm thrilled to lead the newly expanded GRAMMY Museum and look forward to bringing more resources and scale to our programs as we continue to use music as a gateway to learning."

"For 10 years, I have had the unique and exciting opportunity to run what began as a one-of-a-kind 21st century Museum," said Bob Santelli. "Together with my stellar staff, we've created interactive exhibits that have traveled the country and the world. And now, with footprints in the south via GRAMMY Museum Mississippi and our GRAMMY Museum Gallery at Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville along with our recently announced projects in New Jersey and China, I couldn't be more excited to continue the expansion of the GRAMMY Museum brand."

In 2017 the newly expanded GRAMMY Museum plans to broaden and strengthen its programs by including those previously included under the GRAMMY Foundation umbrella. Moving forward, the Museum will place a stronger emphasis on growing its education and curriculum-based initiatives in an effort to make music education accessible to students nationwide.

Read more about the GRAMMY Museum, GRAMMY Foundation integration

GRAMMYs
News
pre-order-2016-grammy-nominees-album

Pre-Order The 2016 GRAMMY Nominees Album

Facebook Twitter Email
Compilation of hit tracks available Jan. 22, 2016; pre-order now and enter to win a trip to the 58th GRAMMY Awards
THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
Dec 17, 2015 - 12:47 pm

The Recording Academy's GRAMMY Recordings and Republic Records have teamed to release the 2016 GRAMMY Nominees album, which will be available Jan. 22, 2016, in stores and via digital retailers. The 22nd installment of the best-selling series will feature an array of this year's GRAMMY-nominated artists and hit songs across multiple genres. A portion of the proceeds from sales of the album will help support the year-round efforts of the GRAMMY Foundation and MusiCares.

Beginning Dec. 6, the night before GRAMMY nominations are announced and in conjunction with the airing of "Sinatra 100 – An All-Star GRAMMY Concert," music fans can log on to GRAMMY.com/2016GRAMMYAlbum or 2016GRAMMYAlbum.com to pre-order the album and enter for a chance to win a trip for two to the 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards on Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles. (No purchase necessary to enter or win.)

"We're proud to join forces with Republic Records to bring together an exciting mix of tracks in one album, highlighting today's most talented musicians," said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. "We're thrilled to give music fans the opportunity to experience Music's Biggest Night firsthand through our pre-order enter-to-win sweepstakes, all while supporting the important work MusiCares and the GRAMMY Foundation carry out year-round."

"It's an honor to celebrate and pay tribute to today's most talented and inspiring artists," said Avery Lipman, Founder/President of Republic Records. "We are proud to call ourselves partners with The Recording Academy whose care and support of the recording arts remains the foundation of our business."

"Sinatra 100 — An All-Star GRAMMY Concert" will air on CBS Sunday, Dec. 6, from 9–11 p.m. ET/PT. The two-hour primetime entertainment special will celebrate the late icon's 100th birthday and feature a stellar lineup of artists performing songs made famous by the nine-time GRAMMY winner.

The full 58th GRAMMY nominations list will be available Dec. 7 at GRAMMY.com at 8:30 a.m. ET., and the GRAMMY nominations conversation can be followed on Facebook. The 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards will broadcast live on CBS on Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

GRAMMYs

The 2015 GRAMMY Nominees album, now available for pre-order

News
pre-order-2015-grammy-nominees-album

Pre-Order The 2015 GRAMMY Nominees Album

Facebook Twitter Email
Best-selling series available Jan. 20; pre-order the album now and enter to win a trip to the 57th GRAMMY Awards
THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
Dec 5, 2014 - 5:00 am

The Recording Academy's GRAMMY Recordings and RCA Records have teamed to release the 2015 GRAMMY Nominees album, which will be available Jan. 20, 2015, in stores and via digital retailers. The 21st installment of the best-selling series will feature an array of this year's GRAMMY-nominated artists and hit songs across multiple genres. A portion of the proceeds from sales of the album will help support the year-round efforts of the GRAMMY Foundation and MusiCares Foundation — two Recording Academy-affiliated charitable organizations.

"We are truly proud to partner with RCA Records to present our annual compilation featuring a group of highly talented artists across a variety of genres," said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. "This great collection of music, coupled with the sweepstakes opportunity that will allow two lucky fans a chance to experience Music's Biggest Night firsthand, constitutes an extremely fulfilling project, with proceeds supporting the crucial work our charitable foundations perform throughout the year."

"It is an absolute honor to work with The Recording Academy on the 2015 GRAMMY Nominees album and celebrate Music's Biggest Night," said Tom Corson, president and COO of RCA Records. "This album will showcase the year's top nominated songs by artists from across all genres. We are also proud to participate in The Academy's charitable endeavors, which include the continuing support of music education across the country."

In conjunction with "A Very GRAMMY Christmas," which airs Friday, Dec. 5 at 9–10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS, music fans can log on to www.grammy.com/2015grammyalbum to pre-order the album and enter for a chance to win a trip for two to the 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2015, at Staples Center in Los Angeles. (No purchase necessary to enter or win.)

For updates and breaking news, please visit The Recording Academy's social networks on Twitter and Facebook.

Top
Logo
  • Recording Academy
    • About
    • Governance
    • Press Room
    • Jobs
    • Events
  • GRAMMYs
    • Awards
    • News
    • Videos
    • Events
    • Store
    • FAQ
  • Latin GRAMMYs
    • Awards
    • News
    • Photos
    • Videos
    • Cultural Foundation
    • Members
    • Press
  • GRAMMY Museum
    • COLLECTION:live
    • Explore
    • Exhibits
    • Education
    • Support
    • Programs
    • Donate
  • MusiCares
    • About
    • Get Help
    • Give
    • News
    • Videos
    • Events
  • Advocacy
    • About
    • News
    • Learn
    • Act
  • Membership
    • Chapters
    • Producers & Engineers Wing
    • GRAMMY U
    • Join
Logo

© 2021 - Recording Academy. All rights reserved.

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Copyright Notice
  • Contact Us

Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy.