November 30, 1959
Reviews hit newsstands after the first televised, and second overall Grammy awards (Sunday, November 29, 1959) — the first ceremony had been in May 1959. Like the first edition, the ceremony took place simultaneously in New York and Los Angeles; the telecast also featured prerecorded performances from Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Jonah Jones (though the critical favorite was the …Mormon Tabernacle Choir doing the….Battle Hymn of the Republic).
37 awards were presented in the hourlong (!) program, and then as now it was not without some snafus (a pianist presented an award to the wrong person). Below are the jazz awards for the first Grammys (record and song of the year both went to Domenico Modugno’s “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu” — better known as “Volare” — though “The Chipmunk Song” (!) was nominated, and album of the year was Henry Mancini’s The Music of Peter Gunn) :
Best Group Jazz Performance
Count Basie – Basie
Jonah Jones – Baubles, Bangles and Beads
George Shearing – Burnished Brass
Basie Rhythm Section, Dave Lambert Singers – Sing a Song of Basie
Four Freshmen – The Four Freshmen in Person
Best Female Vocal Performance
Ella Fitzgerald – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook
Doris Day – Everybody Loves a Lover
Eydie Gorme – Eydie in Love
Peggy Lee – Fever
Keely Smith – I Wish You Love
Best Individual Jazz Performance
Ella Fitzgerald – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book
Johan Jones – Baubles, Bangles and Beads
George Shearing – Burnished Brass
Matty Mattock – Dixieland Story
Jonah Jones – Jumpin’ with Jonah
And for the second Grammys — Frank Sinatra, who was not in attendance, won album of the year for Come Dance with Me, and Bobby Darin won record of the year for “Mack The Knife” (effectively a Louis Armstrong song…). The big victory of the show, as far as its hosts were concerned, was the total lack of rock and roll (big Recording Academy energy). Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra were the most awarded artists of the night.
Best Jazz Peformance – Soloist
Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Swings Lightly
Urbie Green - Best of New Broadway Show Hits
Ruby Braff - Easy Now
Andre Previn - Like Young
Red Norvo - Red Norvo in Hi-Fi
Best Jazz Performance – Group
Jonah Jones - I Dig Chicks
Shorty Rogers - Chances Are It Swings
Duke Ellington - Ellington Jazz Party
Henry Mancini - More Music from Peter Gunn
Red Norvo - Red Norvo in Hi-Fi
Best Musical Composition
Duke Ellington - Anatomy of a Murder
Dmitri Shostakovitch - Shostakovitch: Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 101
Henry Mancini - More Music from Peter Gunn
Morton Gould - St. Lawrence Suite
Serge Prokofiev - Prokofiev: The Overture Russe, Op. 72
Best Performance by a Dance Band
Duke Ellington - Anatomy of a Murder
Count Basie - Breakfast Dance and Barbecue
Glenn Miller - For the Very First Time
Larry Elgart - New Sounds at the Roosevelt
Perez Prado - Pops and Prado
Best Rhythm & Blues Performance
Dinah Washington - What a Diff'rence a Day Makes
Elvis Presley - A Big Hunk o’ Love
The Coasters - Charlie Brown
Jesse Belvin - Guess Who
Nat King Cole - Midnight Flyer
Below are some of the reviews:
From Billboard:
From the Washington Post — notice how Sinatra is topline, even though Duke Ellington won more awards:
From the Boston Globe — the payola incident cited was the fact that the New York District Attorney had just subpoenaed 11 different record companies the previous week as part of a payola investigation. You’ll be shocked to learn that the companies subpoenaed were almost exclusively labels that distributed Black music, including Jubilee and King, and the much-maligned rock and roll — jazz label Roulette was included as well.
From the New York Herald Tribune:
From the Los Angeles Times:
From the Daily Defender:
