Caribbean Jazz Project Wins Latin Grammy Award!

Cleveland-based Heads Up International Up (a division of Concord Music Group), one of the world’s premier jazz and world music labels, is proud to announce that the Latin Recording Academy has awarded the Caribbean Jazz Project a Latin GRAMMY® in the category of Best Latin Jazz Album for Caribbean Jazz Project-Afro Bop Alliance. Winners were announced at the 9th Annual Latin GRAMMY® Awards Ceremony on Thursday, November 13 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The ceremony was broadcast live on the Univision Network. 

The Caribbean Jazz Project-Afro Bop Alliance, released on Heads Up on March 25, 2008, recasts nine CJP signature pieces – some by leader/vibraphonist David Samuels and others by Coltrane, Monk and other jazz luminaries – in a fresh new light via full-bodied arrangements by the Maryland-based Afro Bop Alliance, one of the most exciting new bands on the Latin jazz scene today 

The Caribbean Jazz Project crafted their first recordings on Heads Up International in the 1990s and immediately captured the imagination of audiences and critics worldwide. In the years since, a few of the faces in the group’s roster have changed. Nevertheless, Samuels and company continue to explore and test the commonly accepted boundaries of Latin jazz – and jazz in general – via innovative compositions and exciting arrangements. This is the Caribbean Jazz Project’s first Latin GRAMMY® Award for Heads Up. The group also won a GRAMMY® Award in 2003. 

Samuels says, “What a great honor to be recognized by your peers. Keep music alive!” 

“I am excited about the Caribbean Jazz Project winning their second GRAMMY® Award for Best Latin Jazz Album,” says Dave Love, President of Heads Up International. “I’ve been working with Dave Samuels and the Caribbean Jazz Project since their inception in 1995, and I’m thrilled to reunite with them after all these years.” 

The Latin Recording Academy is a membership-based organization comprised of recording artists, musicians, producers and other creative and technical recording professionals who are dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural conditions for Latin music and its makers. In addition to producing the Latin GRAMMY^® Awards to honor excellence in the recording arts and sciences, the Latin Recording Academy provides educational and human services programs to the Latin music community.

Heads Up International