There were some surprises last night at the Grammy Awards, and you’ll be surprised that some of the award-winners and their recordings can be found at the Snell Library, too!
The best new artist of the year, Esperanza Spalding, is featured on a 4-DVD set available at the Snell Library called “Icons Among us: Jazz in the Present Tense.”
For pop and r&b artists, we may not have the winning recordings but we do have some CDs and DVDs featuring Jeff Beck, Eminem, John Legend, and Neil Young. Intriguingly, we happen to have a recording by the Nor’easters, Northeastern’s a cappella group, of a Lady Gaga medley.
In the classical category, you can find the multi-award winning Metropolis Symphony and Deus Ex Machina by Michael Daugherty (Best Engineered Classical, Best Orchestral Performance, Best Classical Contemporary) streaming online from Naxos. I admit I have my issues with contemporary classical but I really liked Metropolis (which is based on the Superman Comics) a lot; it has great energy and is modern in the best sense, with echoes of Gershwin.
Naxos also streams the Parker Quartet’s Ligeti’s String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 (Best Chamber Music Performance) and P. Jacobs’ organ recording of Messiaen’s Livre du Saint Sacrement (Best Instrumental Soloist).
We’ve also got recordings by these award-winners:
If watching the Grammy Awards made you want to expand your horizons, scratch that itch at the Snell Library!