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On Sunday the 54th GRAMMY Awards ceremony presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences will be held in Downtown Los Angeles. While artists like Kanye West, Adele and the Beach Boys are ushered into Staples Center, outside the awards, demonstrators including musicians, community leaders and fans will be demanding the reinstatement of 31 music categories slashed last year from the industries most coveted awards.

The 31 largely ethnic and minority GRAMMY categories include Latin jazz, contemporary jazz, Native American, Hawaiian, regional Mexican, gospel, classical and contemporary blues. In justifying the cuts last April, the Recording Academy claimed that they were needed in order to preserve “the prestige of the highest and only peer-recognized award in music.”

Outraged by the cuts, many artists, activists and celebrities have spoken out including Paul Simon, Carlos Santana, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Organizers with the group GRAMMY Watch and the Latino political advocacy group Presente.org have spearheaded the movement holding coast to coast protest rallies and circulating a petition that so far has 23,000 signatures. On Sunday immediately following the rally at Staples Center the two groups will be hosting the “Not Those Awards All-Star Latin Jazz Jam” at Mama Juana’s nightclub in Studio City. Ray Carrion and his Latin Jazz All Stars will be joined by numerous guests including GRAMMY nominated and GRAMMY winning artists to raise support.

Latin jazz artist and co-founder of GRAMMY Watch Bobby Matos said “[w]e are holding this concert to remind music fans about all the great music that has been eliminated from the Grammys. To paraphrase what Frank Sinatra said at the first Grammy Awards in 1959, ‘Remember, the awards are about excellence, not popularity.’”

GUESTS: Bobby Matos, Latin jazz artist and co-founder of GRAMMY Watch; Miguel Perla with Presente.org

Click here for a poster of this weekend’s events.

The Grammy Protest will take place on Sunday February 12th from 3:30 to 5 pm on the corner of Figueroa and Pico in downtown LA.

The ‘Not Those Awards All-Star Latin Jazz Jam’ will take place on Sunday February 12th from 5-8 pm at Mama Juana’s Latin Lounge, 3707 Cahuenga Blvd West, Studio City, CA 91604.

Visit www.grammywatch.org for more information.