News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Thurs. Aug. 4, 2011: Organizers of the Grammy Awards has been slapped with a lawsuit for axing the Latin jazz genre from the show.
Grammy nominees Bobby Sanabria, Ben Lapidus, Mark Levine and Eugene Marlow are accusing the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of devaluing their music.
The 20-page class-action lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Manhattan’s Supreme Court, claims “irreparable injury to the members of the Recording Academy,” according to a report by Billboard.
It was announced by the Grammy’s in April that the number of award categories was being cut from 109 to 78, meaning categories like best Latin jazz album and best classical crossover album would be out.
Other categories that were eliminated by NARAS include Native American, Hawaiian and zydeco.
The musicians want the best Latin jazz album category to be reinstated at the annual ceremony. But the academy said it “believes this frivolous lawsuit is without merit.”
