Ravi Shankar passed away in December before he could attend The Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards celebration where he was to receive a lifetime achievement award. But the 91-year-old sitar master, Indian music promoter and friend to The Beatles got the call a few days before he passed away, and that meant everything to his family.
If he's feeling well enough, jazz bassist Charlie Haden would like to convey a message when he is recognized with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award this weekend about the need for music that leads people "to think about the deeper things."
The National Endowment for the Arts is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its Jazz Masters Awards.
Longtime jazz drummer and composer Paul Motian, who came to prominence as a member of pianist Bill Evans' trio in the late 1950s and influenced a generation of musicians with his astounding sense of time, died Tuesday at age 80.
Bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Jack DeJohnette _ two of the most stylistically wide-ranging musicians in modern jazz _ are among the last recipients of the nation's highest jazz honor.
