Sammy's in the Grammys

By Joe Dwyer     9/24/09 7:00pm

It is rare for established artists to snag a Grammy nomination with their first commercial album release, but lifelong jazz musician and Rice Jazz Instructor Larry Slezak has done just that with his group's debut album, No Worries. Earlier this week, Slezak was notified that his album had been nominated for no less than four Grammys.

"I honestly couldn't believe it," Slezak said about the nomination. "You never think that's going to happen to you. It's one thing to intentionally produce a record for the purpose of getting it involved in the Grammy process, but ... this record is what I do. It's not designed to [be competitive] - it's just what I do, and it turned out that what I do seems to have some value to the Grammy folks."

Released by Houston's Tierra Studios on Nov. 25, 2008, No Worries enjoyed favorable reviews and airtime across the country in its first months. Its four Grammy nominations include two for Best Improvised Jazz Solo on the song "You've Changed" - one nomination for Slezak on tenor saxophone and the other for pianist José-Miguel Yamal - a nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album and a nomination for Best Engineered Album, for engineer Glenn L. Wheeler.

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Slezak has been playing a variety of jazz instruments professionally since he was 14 and has become a fixture in the Houston jazz scene since moving here from New York in 1973. He teaches saxophone and Applied Jazz Studies at Rice's Shepherd School of Music in addition to directing the Rice Jazz Ensembles.

Yamal (Jones '99) studied classical guitar at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, but eventually switched to piano. He earned his Ph.D. in statistics from Rice in 2007 and currently does research at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

On working with Slezak, Yamal had nothing but positive things to say.

"It's been wonderful," Yamal said. "Larry's been a mentor to me, as well as to a lot of other musicians in town. He has taught me a lot about not just music, but also the music business."

Yamal hoped the nominations could be used as a catalyst to get the band's music out to a larger audience and influence other people's lives on a positive way. In addition to No Worries, Yamal has released several previous recordings and has more in the works, including a Latin jazz quartet album projected to be released by the end of the year and a production in which he mixes R&B and Latin music.

When asked why it had taken him so long to get around to releasing an album of his own, Slezak cited his enjoyment of playing for live audiences.

"It was never important to me to make a recording until recently," he said. "I guess part of it is my age and part of it is that people felt that it was time I did something for the people coming up, who might want to hear what came before them."

He said the album was the result of a number of different things, financial and otherwise, coming together at just the right time. Slezak also said that at 63 years old, he felt too old to worry about being famous.

"It's not about [being famous]," he said. "It's about making good music ... and I guess this [nomination] is just proof that good music does count, because let's face it: There's a lot of bad music around."

All talk of fame aside, Slezak is quick to point out and recognize the support he gets from the rest of his jazz ensemble.

"It's not just me - it's us, and that's a big deal to me," he said. "You're only as good as your accompaniment, you know what I mean? Without them I couldn't have achieved this, and it would be foolish to think I could."

Still, his ensemble probably didn't have the same reaction to the news as Yamal. Upon hearing about the nomination, Yamal said, "I jumped and did a heel click."

The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards will air on Jan. 31, 2010, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. No Worries is available on both iTunes and Amazon MP3.

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