STAR-BULLETIN FILE Producer Charles Michael Brotman, right, accepts a Grammy award with Sonny Lim at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards in February.

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Isle Grammy panel
scheduled tomorrow

Officials hope to clear up
misconceptions on
Hawaiian entries

Hawaii received a surprise Christmas present last December when Grammy officials announced that a new category for Hawaiian music would be part of the 2005 event.

Grammy 101 When: 5:30 p.m. tomorrow Place: Hilton Hawaiian Village Rainbow Suite Admission: Free RSVP: To pacificnw@grammy.com or call 206-834-1000

But there was widespread confusion about the nomination criteria. Most of those in the local music industry believed that for a recording to be nominated, a majority, or 51 percent, of the music or lyrics had to be on Hawaiian instruments or in the Hawaiian language.

"That's not the case," said Ben London, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. "There were a lot of misperceptions, which created some disappointment, but the requirements are pretty much spelled out on the Grammy Web site."

To clear up the confusion, London and Linda Wilvang of the Grammy's awards department will lead a free panel tomorrow titled "GRAMMY 101: Building the Best Hawaiian Music Album Category."

Specially, the panel will explain qualifications for the Best Hawaiian Music Album category, how recordings can be nominated and how the voting works.

Alan Yamamoto, president of the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts, expects as many as 50 Hawaiian albums will be eligible for next year's Grammy consideration. About 40 albums were eligible last year, but 23 were moved into other categories -- such as jazz -- because they didn't fit the criteria for Hawaiian music.

"The main topic probably will be what makes a Hawaiian album Grammy-eligible," Yamamoto said. "The vocal track must be predominantly in the Hawaiian language, and it's that word -- predominantly -- which confuses people."

Another topic will be why vocal and instrumental CDs are in the same category, Yamamoto said. "It's all about numbers. Until there are a lot more Hawaiian music CDs released, the category will continue to include both."

The CD that won the first Hawaiian music Grammy in February was a strictly instrumental compilation, "Slack Key Guitar Vol. 2."

The academy wants to capitalize on the Hawaiian music category because it is new and generated a great deal of national and international interest, London said.

Alan Yamamoto: "The vocal track must be predominantly in the Hawaiian language ..."

The academy, he said, has no vested interest in who wins. "Our goal is to be neutral so it's up to the members who vote and nominate who decide."

Hawaii currently has fewer than 200 eligible Grammy voters -- out of 700 in the Northwest chapter and about 17,000 nationwide.

"We want people to join so they can have an impact on nominations and the winner," London said. "Since Hawaiian music is in the folk category -- a category that doesn't get a lot of votes -- Grammy members in Hawaii can have a major impact on which artist wins if the membership grows just another 100."

To qualify as a Hawaiian album, London said, contemporary recordings must contain "substantial traditional elements."

"The Hawaiian language must be used in a predominance of the vocal tracks on an album, but there is no number percentage attached to it," he said. "The committee will not count every word, but if a chorus or phrase is used a number of times in the song, then that's the hook in the recording."

The Grammy process begins as academy members and record companies submit recordings and music videos for consideration. Entries are screened by more than 150 experts in various musical fields, the purpose being not to make artistic judgments, London said, but rather to ensure that each entry is eligible and placed in its proper category.

First-round ballots are sent to voting members, who are instructed to vote only in their fields of expertise. All voters are involved in the creative and technical processes of recording (record companies do not vote). The field is then narrowed to five finalists.

A second round of ballots then determines the winners. In both rounds, ballots are tabulated in secrecy by an independent accounting firm.

For the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, recordings must be released from Oct. 1, 2004, to Sept. 30, 2005, and be in general distribution in the United States.