Academy honors legendary artists and professionals on the eve of Music's Biggest Night

GRAMMY.com
Steve Hochman

The great New Orleans songwriter/producer/musician Allen Toussaint stood outside the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon and assessed the scene.

"It's all just grand," he said, putting special emphasis on the last word. "Simply grand."

He might well have made that statement had he been a mere spectator as honorees of The Recording Academy Special Merit Awards were arriving. But he was, in fact, one of those to receive the coveted recognition at the annual event on the evening before the GRAMMY Awards telecast.

The elegant man behind "Yes We Can," "Southern Nights," "Lady Marmalade" and so many other hits was being given a Recording Academy Trustees Award for his contributions to recorded music, as were classical composer Elliott Carter and record executive/producer George Avakian, a past Academy Chairman/President and, among other things, the man most responsible for the popularization of the 12-inch LP record.

Along with them, the other names being added to the roster of most-respected figures in music: Lifetime Achievement Awards went to cowboy star Gene Autry, gospel greats the Blind Boys Of Alabama, soul standouts the Four Tops, jazz piano giant Hank Jones, vocal powerhouse/personality Brenda Lee, Rat Pack alumnus Dean Martin and folk force Tom Paxton, with Technical GRAMMY Awards going to guitar maker Clarence "Leo" Fender and the groundbreaking Universal Audio company.

Grand it was, yet intimate and emotional. Onstage during the presentations, there were tears of joy from an overwhelmed Lee, who'd become a TV and recording star at an age about half that of Miley Cyrus and went on to become the top-selling female solo artist of the '60s. "Those stairs are so high!" joked the compact singer whose many pop and country hits included "I'm Sorry" and "Sweet Nothin's," explaining her breathlessness at the podium. "And my legs are so short!"

And there were moving tears of appreciation intensified by loss from Abdul "Duke" Fakir, the lone surviving member of the Four Tops, accepting the honor less than four months after the passing of the Motown group's signature baritone lead singer Levi Stubbs. The group had an amazing run spanning more than 40 years — totaling 24 Top 40 hits — with its original lineup until Lawrence Payton died in 1997, followed by Renaldo "Obie" Benson's passing in 2005. 

"When Levi passed, it seemed Obie, Lawrence and Levi got together and spoke to me that night and said, 'Before you go, tell everyone thanks,'" Fakir said, choking up.

Carter, in a video greeting, noted with some wonder that the "lifetime" being recognized in his case had now reached a full century — a time during which, as a montage introduction pointed out, he has served up some of the most adventurous, challenging and moving compositions of modern times.

From a singing cowboy to the father of modern jazz piano, from Dino to Little Miss Dynamite, from the iconic voices of soul and gospel to the forces behind electric guitar power, the long-playing record and reverb, the recipients represent a remarkable amount of ground. And yet there is one key characteristic that links them all.

These are not just names, noted Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow on the red carpet before the event. "These [people] are trademarks."

That may have been most clearly, and humorously, illustrated by Gail Martin, the daughter of Dean Martin, who accepted along with siblings Ricci and Gina and nephew Alex. As a gift this past Christmas, she had her 14-year-old grandson go pick out a new skateboard. "He said, 'You'll never guess whose picture is on it,'" she told of an excited phone call from the teenager. "'Grandpa Dean – with two of his friends.' You make your first record in 1948, and your face is on a skateboard in 2009." Not bad, she said, for someone who always made his hard work look easy.

Meanwhile, Phyllis Fender, the widow of the man whose name is one of the most recognized in music, revealed the less-unknown personal nature of his trademark —  embraced by axe-slingers from Buddy Holly and Jimi Hendrix to Eric Clapton and Kurt Cobain. "I know it sounds corny, but each of these guitars was his babies," she said. But she added, "He never kept a single guitar he made. He said, 'Why should I keep this one since the next will be better?'"

It was that mix of ambition and vision with distinctly personal stamps that time after time was singled out by Portnow and Recording Academy Chair Jimmy Jam. Portnow showed childlike glee talking about the late Gene Autry's code of cowboy honor that drove his relationship with generations of youngsters, as well as his approaches to music that still resonate with today's country chart-toppers.

It was also a group that represents invaluable perspective regarding the evolution of the recording business. Avakian, who guided the careers of Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and many more in his role as a producer and executive first with Columbia Records, reminded that when he started out, walking into a store and buying an album of Duke Ellington music was impossible. What relatively little of the music available from such giants was only to be found on 78 rpm "singles."

While there was, naturally, a lot of history spotlighted, there was also a considerable amount of looking forward. Lee is still a vital performer more than 60 years after her child-star start. The Four Tops keep a touring schedule of about 150 dates a year, with Fakir joined by a new generation of Tops — literally in the case of Lawrence Payton Jr., carrying on for his father. And Carter's absence from the ceremony was in part due to the fact that even having passed the century mark, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner is not resting on his laurels. He's hard at work in his New York home on his next groundbreaking piece.

Not the least came from the Blind Boys, a group that started in the '30s. On hand were founders Jimmy Carter (who still fronts the group), Clarence Fountain (who has remained active on an occasional basis) and Johnnie Fields. Fountain wanted to prime the audience for a new project he's working on. He leaned forward at the podium and said, deliciously, "It's better than ice cream."

(Read our GRAMMY Week event blogs.)