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Ladies and Gentlemen... It's Grammy Week!
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Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand and T Bone Burnett are among the 2011 Grammy Week honorees.
The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards take place Sunday but before you start placing bets on whether Britney Spears will show up or who Kanye might diss, the Recording Academy has a week full of affiliated red carpet events, many open to the public, and some that may turn out to be too good for network TV.
Tonight the Producers and Engineers wing of the academy tips its hat to T Bone Burnett at The Village studios in West LA. Burnett is among the most widely-respected producers/engineers in the music business today, a 10-time Grammy winner with producer credits on ten releases in 2010 alone. Elton John and Leon Russell (Burnett produced and played on their recent release "The Union) are co-chairs of the event.
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Thursday night the Grammy Jazz Ensembles performs with special guest and Grammy nominee Esperanza Spalding at Spaghettini Grill in Seal Beach. Tickets are $25.
Also Thursday is Word Revolution: A Celebration of the Evolution of Hip Hop at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. Part of the Academy's Music Preservation program, the event will feature rare film and live performances from Arrested Development, Phyfe Dawg, DJ Jazzy Jeff, MC Lyte and El DeBarge. Tickets $25.
The awards show is occasionally slighted for paying short shrift to the importance of rap and hip-hop in today's music but this year, at least those of us in L.A. have the opportunity to take a ride through "Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey" at the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live. The exhibit showcases the history and artifacts of the genre and is featured through May 4.
Thursday through Saturday the Grammy Style Studio is open, you can follow the action there via our friends at TwoPointOhLA.
Friday afternoon the Social Media Rock Stars Summit takes place at The Conga Room at L.A. Live. Don't miss this for the latest hot Foursquare and Twitter tips and tricks according to Adam Lambert and Chamillionaire. The panel will be rounded out by executives from Foursquare, Pandora and Facebook. The event will be streamed live, kicking off 3 days of continuous online programming at grammy.com/live and youtube.com/thegrammys.
Friday night is Barbra's night. Ms. Streisand will be honored as MusiCares Person of the Year with a reception and tribute performance at the L.A. Convention Center. Tony Bennett, Jeff Beck, LeAnn Rimes, Seal, BeBe Winans, Stevie Wonder, Diana Krall, Barry Manilow and for good measure, the cast of "Glee" will all be there to honor the 68-year-old Streisand. The event is open to big-time MusiCares donors and it will be simulcast on the Grammy livestream. Streisand will also perform on the awards show Sunday.
On Saturday all of those Special Merit Awards are given out at a ceremony and reception at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. The event is closed to the public but now you know what the commotion will be along Wilshire Saturday afternoon. Lifetime achievement award honorees for 2011 include Julie Andrews, Roy Haynes, Juilliard String Quartet, the Kingston Trio, Dolly Parton and the Ramones.
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Sunday is the 53rd Annual Grammys. And of course, the show will already by over by the time it's broadcast locally on CBS. But this year it's Grammy.com/live all day, complete with red carpet -- the pre-Grammys show -- and a "dual screen" livestream of the main event at 5pm local time.
And we'll be there too, tweeting, facebooking and cornering whomever we can in the media room all day long.
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