SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Jan. 4, 2005) — Recording artists Eddy Arnold, Art Blakey, the original members of the Carter Family, Morton Gould, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jelly Roll Morton, Pinetop Perkins, and the Staple Singers will receive The Recording Academy^® Lifetime Achievement Award, it was announced today. Hoagy Carmichael, Don Cornelius, Alfred Lion, and Dr. Billy Taylor will be honored with the Academy Trustees Award. Phil Ramone and JBL Professional have been named recipients of the Technical GRAMMY^® Award.

The Lifetime Achievement Award honors lifelong artistic contributions to the recording medium while the Trustees Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the industry in a non-performing capacity. Both awards are decided by vote of The Recording Academy's National Trustees. Technical GRAMMY Award recipients are determined by vote of the members of the Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing and the Academy's Trustees. The award is presented to individuals and/or companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.

Formal acknowledgment of these special merit awards will be made at a new elite ceremony during GRAMMY Week on Saturday, Feb. 12, as well as during the 47th Annual GRAMMY Awards, which will be held at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2005 and broadcast live at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the CBS Television Network.

"The Lifetime Achievement, Trustees and Technical GRAMMY Awards recognize music people who have made a lasting contribution to culture around the world," said Neil Portnow, President of The Recording Academy. "These profoundly inspiring figures are being honored as legendary performers and archetypal musicians, cultural ambassadors, and technical visionaries. Their outstanding accomplishments and passion for their craft have created a timeless legacy that has positively affected multiple generations, and will continue to influence generations to come."

Lifetime Achievement Award honorees:

Eddy Arnold ‹ Arguably the most popular country performer in the 20th century. With 28 No. 1 singles, Arnold spent more weeks at the top of the charts than any other artist. He brought country music to the masses, making him one of the first crossover country artists.

* Art Blakey ‹ One of the most influential jazz musicians of the past 50 years, drummer Art Blakey created a sound known as hard bop. In 1955, Blakey co-founded the Jazz Messengers, an ensemble that became known for finding and nurturing talent for many decades.

* (Original) Carter Family (Alvin P. "A.P." Carter, Sara Carter, and Maybelle Carter) ‹ Formed in 1926 in Virginia, the Carter Family became one of the most influential groups in country music history. A.P. can be considered the father of bluegrass thanks to his penchant for collecting and recording hundreds of British/Appalachian folk songs ‹ saving them for future generations. The Carter Family's influence can be heard today in many contemporary folk, bluegrass, and rock musicians.

* Morton Gould ‹ An important American conductor and composer, Gould wrote in both popular and classical styles. A child prodigy, Gould played the piano and composed by age 4. In addition to writing for Broadway and scoring films and television shows, he was music director of the popular radio program "The Chrysler Hour" in the 1940s and served as president of ASCAP from 1986 to 1994.

* Janis Joplin ‹ One of the greatest female artists of the '60s, Joplin redefined the role of women in rock with her assertive, sexual persona and electrifying on-stage presence. Her passionate and gritty vocal style made her recordings some of the best of her era and left an indelible mark on the history of rock.

Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, * John Bonham) ‹ Formed in 1968, the quartet's interpretation of blues, experimentation with folk and world music, and their incorporation of mystical themes defined the hard rock genre and established the concept of album-oriented rock.

Jerry Lee Lewis ‹ Rock and roll's first great wild man, Lewis' larger-than-life personality was matched only by his energy and skill at the piano. When he emerged on the rock scene in 1957, he created his own unique brand of music by ignoring musical boundaries and merging blues, gospel, country, and rock. His work has transcended fads and fashions and is considered one of the best collections of American music in existence.

* Jelly Roll Morton ‹ A founding father of the genre and arguably jazz's first great composer, Morton was also an extremely talented arranger, pianist, and vocalist. He traveled across the country performing during the first decades of the 20th century and fused a variety of black musical expressions ‹ ragtime, blues, field hollers, religious hymns, and spirituals ‹ with Caribbean influences and white popular songs, and created a sound that bore a close resemblance to the music beginning to be called "jazz."

Pinetop Perkins ‹ With his unmistakable piano sound, Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins is widely recognized as the world's best blues piano player . A living repository of blues tradition ‹ and one of the last great blues artists of his era ‹ Perkins' brand of boogie-woogie helped shape swing music and, eventually, rock and roll.

The Staple Singers ( * Roebuck "Pops" Staples, Cleotha Staples, Mavis Staples, Pervis Staples, Yvonne Staples) ‹ T he Staple Singers have been performing their blend of gospel, folk and Delta blues ‹ steeped in the music of the church ‹ since the 50's. Fronted by patriarch Roebuck "Pops" Staples,  the Staple Singers  have left an imprint of soulful voices, righteous conviction and danceable "message music" across the decades.

Trustees Award honorees :

* Hoagy Carmichael ‹ One of the great composers of the American popular song, Howard Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael's compositions such as "Stardust" and "Georgia On My Mind" have long been standards. Numerous artists from various genres of American music have performed his songs, and each time they find new audiences and build a lasting legacy in our cultural memory. Carmichael was one of the first singer/songwriters of the mass media age, paving the way for later performing writers.

Don Cornelius ‹ "Soul Train" creator and executive producer Don Cornelius has been at the cutting edge of soul music for more than 30 years. "Soul Train," the first black-oriented music variety show ever offered on American television, is one of the most successful weekly programs marketed in first-run syndication and one of the longest running syndicated programs in American television history. The show's emergence and long-standing popularity marks a crucial moment in the history of African-American television production.

* Alfred Lion ‹ Lion co-founded Blue Note Records in 1939 and developed it into one of the top independent jazz labels in existence. Lion had an enthusiastic curiosity for new music and his dedication to the quality of each record was unparalleled in the industry. He had the ability to capture the special nature of jazz by giving his artists room to operate despite their eccentricities and, as a result, Blue Note produced many groundbreaking artists under his leadership.

Dr. Billy Taylor ‹ A distinguished ambassador of the jazz community, Taylor's career spans six decades. The recording artist, composer, radio personality and educator has crusaded for greater recognition of jazz, the genre he calls "America's classical music." One of only three jazz musicians appointed to the National Council of the Arts, Taylor also serves as artistic advisor for jazz at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts where he developed several acclaimed concert series.

Technical GRAMMY Award recipients :

Phil Ramone ‹ Acknowledged as one of the industry's top creative producers, nine-time GRAMMY winner Ramone is equally respected as a technology leader. He has played an integral role in pioneering many of the advances in the art and science of music and film sound recording. As an early advocate of the compact disc, it was a Phil Ramone production (Billy Joel's 52nd Street) that was the first CD ever pressed. The first pop DVD release ( Dave Grusin Presents West Side Story ) also was a Ramone production. As co-broadcast audio supervisor of the GRAMMY telecast, it was Ramone's leadership that inspired the landmark Emmy-winning 5.1 surround broadcast of the 45th Annual GRAMMY Awards.

JBL Professional ‹ Founded by James B. Lansing, JBL has been preeminent in high-end loudspeaker technology for all facets of professional sound since its formation in 1946. As broadcast, recording and motion pictures entered the stereo era in the early '50s, JBL was there with the world's first four-inch voice coil cone drivers and commercially available compression drivers. As the rock movement gathered momentum during the late '60s, JBL eventually became the preferred manufacturer for both musical instrument loudspeakers as well as music reinforcement activities. In recent years, JBL's introduction of VerTec line array systems has been heralded as the leading edge in array technology and system synthesis, and has been the sound reinforcement system of choice for the GRAMMY Awards shows.

Established in 1957, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., also known as The Recording Academy, is an organization of musicians, producers, engineers, and recording professionals that is dedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers. Internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards, The Recording Academy is responsible for groundbreaking professional development, cultural enrichment, advocacy, education and human services programs ‹ including the creation of the national public education campaign What's The Download^® (www.WhatsTheDownload.com).

*Posthumous

Media Contact:
Lourdes Lopez
The Recording Academy
310.392.3777