from The Bay Citizen:
This April, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced the elimination of 31 Grammy Awards categories to widespread outcry. Locally, the disappearance of one class of category in particular —awards for Latin Jazz — has continued to draw ire from musicians.
But petitions can only go so far. Pianist Mark Levine, the recipient of a 2003 Grammy nomination in the Latin Jazz category, decided this spring to resign his membership. After being informed via a letter that he was, in fact, a lifetime member, Levine has decided to take his protest a step further.
This past week, he returned the plaque he was awarded for the 2003 nomination for his Latin Tinge album “Isla,” and 2010 Latin Grammy nomination parchment for the Latin Tinge’s “Off & On.”
In the weeks between the initial announcement and his public repudiation of his Recording Academy honors, Levine had come to see the organization as not just ham-fisted but racially insensitive, both in NARAS’s initial category culling and its reply to critics.
Continue reading at The Bay Citizen.