Meshell Ndegeocello is the inaugural winner of Best Alternative Jazz Album at the 2024 Grammys. The Omnichord Real Book was nominated alongside Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily’s Love in Exile, plus albums by Cory Henry (Live at the Piano) and Louis Cole (Quality Over Opinion), as well as SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree, by SuperBlue, Charlie Hunter, and Kurt Elling.
Best Alternative Jazz Album marks Ndegeocello’s second Grammy win. In 2021, Ndegeocello’s Robert Glasper and H.E.R. collaboration “Better Than I Imagined” won the Grammy for Best R&B Song.
The Recording Academy added the Best Alternative Jazz Album category amid another sweep of changes to the institution’s structure and voting practices. Best Pop Dance Recording and Best African Music Performance are the other new categories for 2024, with voting for Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical, and Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, shifted to the general voting pool.
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