Jimmy Greene, former U of M music professor, nominated for 2 Grammy awards
A former Winnipegger's latest jazz album has been nominated for two Grammy awards.
Saxophonist Jimmy Greene, a former University of Manitoba music professor, released Beautiful Life in the fall of 2014. He has been nominated for best jazz instrumental album and best arrangement.
The album is dedicated to Greene's daughter. She was one of 20 kids and six teachers killed in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
A 20-year-old man, armed with an assault rifle, shot his way through the front doors of the school in Newtown, Conn.
Greene spoke with CBC News Monday. He said he came to terms with his daughter's death through music.
"Ana was a little girl who loved life and she loved who she was. She was able to … connect people and be friends with people from many different backgrounds," Greene said. "On the album you see the diversity of musical contributions kind of mirrors that aspect of her life."
Musicians from all over the world are featured on the album, and they jumped at the opportunity to help out when they heard what Greene was trying to do, he said.
Musicians from the Hartford Symphony Orchestra are on the album, as is a choir of young voices from Winnipeg's Linden Christian School. Ana and her brother Isaiah both attended the school when the family lived in Winnipeg.
The siblings both make a handful of appearances on the album, too.
The first song of the album, "Saludos/Come Thou Almighty King," includes a brief clip, recorded a year before the shooting, of Isaiah playing piano and Ana singing.
Greene said the album has been well received wherever he's played to a live audience.
"It's also very bittersweet. The music was written amidst a lot of tears," he said. "To perform it, that my little girl isn't here, is very devastating."
Despite the emotional challenges associated with the project, Greene said it helped him process and recover from what happened to his little girl.
"Music has been a wonderful tool to navigate the ongoing grief process," Greene said. "Music has a way of communicating and filling in for where words just can't accurately convey emotion."
A portion of proceeds from Beautiful Life sales go to two charities set up in Ana's memory: The Ana Grace Project and the Artists' Collective.
