On this episode of The Art of the Story, host Doug Doyle runs down the jazz winners at the 68th Grammy Awards ceremony in LA.
It was a big night at the 2026 Grammy Awards in LA for bassist Christian McBride and singer Samara Joy. McBride won two Grammys…he won for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for his Without Further Ado, Vol.1…(one of the tracks "Old Folks" featured Samara Joy) and Christian also was part of the Best Jazz Performance for Windows - Live, with Brian Blade and the late Chick Corea.
McBride, the host of WBGO's and NPR's Jazz Night in America , now has 11 Grammy wins.
Meanwhile, Samara Joy’s Portrait won Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Some of the other notable wins...Sullivan Fortner’s ”Southern Nights featuring Peter Washington and Marcus Gilmore won Best Jazz Instrumental Album…Buddy Guy won Best Tranditional Blues album for “Ain’t Done with the Blues” and Jon Batiste’s Big Money won best Americana Album.
I hinted to Christian in an August 2025 interview that his latest big band album was Grammy-worthy. You can hear that entire conversation here.
