Album inspired by Sandy Hook victim gets Grammy nominations
By Mesfin Fekadu,Music Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --For saxophonist Jimmy Greene, whose daughter died in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, earning Grammy nominations for his album inspired by late daughter is "bittersweet."
Greene earned his first pair of Grammy nominations Monday, including best arrangement, instruments and vocals for "When I Come Home" and best jazz instrumental album for "Beautiful Life," which he created in honor of Ana Márquez-Greene and also features her vocals.
"It's amazing, but to be honest with you I wish the album never had to be made," Greene said in a phone interview Monday. "I wish my little girl were here; that I didn't have to pay tribute to her, that I could have her here. It's very bittersweet."
"Beautiful Life," Greene's 10th album as a band leader, was released last year. He started working on the album not long after his 6-year-old daughter was gunned down with 19 other first graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Co nnecticut.
"It was incredible painful at the time the songs were written. It was a few months after she was killed," he said. "I was at my work station where I compose and my face wet with tears doing a lot of the writing, but I really felt like I wanted the world to hear a little bit about how my daughter lived."
Greene said Ana enjoyed singing and he juxtaposed home video recordings of her voice with his own composition on "Saludos/Come Thou Almighty King," the opening track of his latest album.
"It was important for me also to have people hear her own voice. She loved to sing and she had a beautiful singing voice," he said.
Greene made the album – which also features his 11-year-old son Isaiah – with the help of Norman and David Chesky of Chesky Records, who helped fund and produce the album.
"It wouldn't have happened without them, and they sought no profit from this at all. They gave me complete ownership of the masters they paid for," he s aid. "It's an amazing gift they gave."
A portion of the proceeds from "Beautiful Life" will benefit two organizations: The Artists Collective, where Greene studied and taught, and The Ana Grace Project, founded by his wife Nelba Marquez-Greene, a marriage and family therapist.
"(We're) trying to promote empathy and compassion in young kids to hopefully prevent these instances of gun violence like the one that took my daughter's life," he said of The Ana Grace Project. http://anagraceproject.org/
Greene has appeared as a sideman on roughly 75 albums and is a professor at Western Connecticut State University, where he also coordinates the jazz studies program. He's also working on his doctorate in jazz studies at the Manhattan School of Music.
"I'm very thankful I have music as a vocation. It's a language on its own and it has a way of communicating when words just don't cut it," he said.
“Heretic” and “Maria” Set As Red Carpet Premieres At AFI Fest
The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that Heretic, the psychological thriller starring Hugh Grant, and Maria, based on the life of opera singer Maria Callas starring Angelina Jolie, will round out the Red Carpet Premieres section at this year’s AFI Fest. The Heretic Gala Screening will take place on Thursday, October 24, and the Maria Gala Screening will be held on Saturday, October 26. The complete Red Carpet Premieres section includes the world premieres of Music By John Williams, Robert Zemeckis’ Here, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2. All Red Carpet Premieres will take place at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre. The full lineup for AFI Fest 2024 will be unveiled on October 1.
“At the heart of AFI Fest is an unwavering dedication to celebrating the best in global cinema--together,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO. “We look forward to uniting artists and audiences once again to be inspired by the art form in a powerful sense of community.”
Heretic follows two young missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) who are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (portrayed by Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse. The film is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and produced by Stacey Sher, Beck, Woods, Julia Glausi and Jeanette Volturno. The film will be released nationwide by A24 on November 8.
Directed by Pablo Larraín, Maria presents a tumultuous and beautiful depiction of one of the world’s most renowned artists and reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days in Paris, as Callas (Jolie)... Read More