Five musicians from the Houston area have been nominated for the 2024 Grammy Awards, including a five-time winner who took home gold-plated hardware from this year’s awards ceremony.
Robert Glasper, a 45-year-old pianist who attended both Elkins High School in Missouri City and the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston ISD, has a chance to win two more Grammys after picking up his fifth in February for “Black Radio III.” One of his newer tracks, “Back To Love,” featuring SiR and Alex Isley, is nominated for best R&B performance and best R&B song.
Rodney Crowell, Lecrae, Travis Scott and Uncle Jumbo, who also are from the Houston area, received their own Grammy nominations last Friday. The 2024 awards ceremony is scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 4 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and will be broadcast live on the CBS Television Network as well as Paramount+.
The 32-year-old Scott, who like Glasper is an Elkins High School product, was nominated for the eighth time and is seeking his first Grammy Award. “Utopia,” which earlier this year spent four weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart, is nominated for best rap album.
Scott’s ongoing Utopia-Circus Maximus tour does not include a stop in Houston, where he has been met with backlash since 10 people died and hundreds more were injured while attending his Astroworld Festival concert in 2021. The Houston Police Department released a 1,266-page report on its investigation into the tragedy on July 28 – the same day “Utopia” was released.
RELATED: Beyoncé sets a new Grammy record, while Harry Styles wins album of the year
Lecrae, a 44-year-old singer, songwriter, producer and record executive who was born in Houston, is a two-time Grammy winner who is up for two more of the prestigious music industry awards. His album “Church Clothes 4” is nominated for best contemporary Christian music album, and “Your Power,” a collaboration between Lecrae and Tasha Cobbs Leonard, is in the running for best contemporary Christian music performance or song.
Crowell, 73, who grew up in Houston, also is a two-time Grammy winner. “The Chicago Sessions” was nominated this year for best Americana album, a category won by Crowell in 2014.
Uncle Jumbo, whose real name is James Pendleton, was nominated for “Taste The Sky” in the category for best children’s music album. He performed on July 4 in Houston during the “Freedom Over Texas” event put on by the city.
The best album notes and best historical album categories also have a Houston connection as “Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958-1971” is nominated in both categories. McCormick, who died in Houston in 2015, was a musicologist and folklorist whose aforementioned recordings were released earlier this year by the Smithsonian.