Grammy-nominated jazz vocalists Samara Joy and Dee Dee Bridgewater share intergenerational wisdom

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As is always the case, the Grammys this year will be dominated by pop, rap, country and rock.But the best races often lie in the less mainstream genres.

Take best jazz vocal album, where Samara Joy, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Bill Charlap, Michael Mayo, Terri Lyne Carrington and Christie Dashiell and Nicole Zuraitis are competing for the honor.The highly impressive group reflects the current state of jazz, where both young guns and veterans are combining to bring the music to a new swell of fans.To talk about the present state of jazz, The Times brought together 26-year-old Joy and 75-year-old Bridgewater.

What followed is an incredible conversation on politics, race, equality and mutual fandom.You both have had Grammy success.But is it still just as thrilling to be nominated?Dee Dee Bridgewater: I can speak on that because I haven’t been nominated in years.

And yeah, it’s a thrill when you’re nominated and you haven’t been and you’ve done something that your peers think is Grammy worthy.I don’t know about Samara, but for me, I don’t do any of my recorded projects with the intention of getting a Grammy nomination, which seems to be the goal of a lot of younger artists.

So that me doing something that I just was trying to chronicle and because of this work that Bill and I have been doing off and on for the last few years, it’s like the icing on the cake.It’s wonderful.Samara Joy: Agreed, when I say I’m just grateful to be here, like in this space, being able to talk about this in this way, I mean it.

It wasn’t the intention behind making the music that I love to make with the people I love to make it with.And when kids come up to me and they say, “Because of you, now my goal is to be a Grammy winner.” I’m like, “You’ve already strayed way off course.

We need to come back.” And realize that the accolades and the awards and the acknowledgment is b...