The Recording Academy said Tuesday it will honor its 2017 Special Merit Awards recipients with an awards ceremony and live tribute concert on Tuesday, July 11 at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.
This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award honorees are Shirley Caesar, Ahmad Jamal, Charley Pride, Jimmie Rodgers, Nina Simone, Sly Stone, and the Velvet Underground.
Additional Special Merit Awards honorees to be celebrated include Thom Bell, Mo Ostin, and Ralph S. Peer, who are this year’s Trustees Award honorees, and Alan Dower Blumlein, who is the Technical Grammy Award recipient. Also being honored is Keith Hancock, this year’s recipient of the Music Educator Award.
With Grammy-winning industry icon Paul Shaffer as musical director, the tribute concert will feature rare performances by honorees and never-seen renditions by those they’ve inspired, a statement said.
Scheduled performers include Andra Day, Kirk Franklin, Randy Newman, and Dwight Yoakam, according to the statement, and Catherine Russell, Dionne Warwick, and Charlie Wilson have been added to the lineup.
