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In an attempt to become more "relevant," The Grammy Awards has reduced the number of Grammy categories from 109 to 78. The problem is, they've lopped off some very important categories, most noticeably the Latin-Jazz category. It's almost beyond belief, actually:

The decision by the group that organizes the Grammy Awards to eliminate nearly one-third of the award categories, announced last week, is meeting resistance from musicians and record producers. They complain that the changes were done behind their backs, are meant to cater to the interests of television and major record labels and that they discriminate against ethnic minorities and performers of genres outside the mainstream.

To counter that impression, Neil R. Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which administers the Grammys, and other academy executives have gone on the road to meet with members of the academy's 12 regional chapters. Their first stop, on Monday night, was New York, where the reaction was skeptical.

"This is terrible, beyond my comprehension, an insult to our genre and many others," the pianist Eddie Palmieri, who won Latin jazz Grammys in 2006 and 2007, said in an interview before the Monday meeting. "We fought for 17 years to get this recognition, and then they turn around and take it away without informing anybody what they were up to."

Check out this video of musicians - including the legendary 78-year old Eddie Palmieri - being forced to wait outside just to get into the aforementioned meeting (and listen to Eddie's presentation to Portnow that someone taped from inside):

But it's not just Latin-Jazz that was eliminated:

Among the categories the academy eliminated are best contemporary jazz album, best traditional blues album, best metal performance and best rock instrumental performance, as well as four classical music categories.

"I don't know what it means for us," the veteran jazz drummer Roy Haynes said before the meeting. "But I do know that the remaining jazz categories are going to be a lot more crowded now, and that it's going to be harder than ever to win a Grammy."

The real issue is that the elimination of these categories hurts small independent labels, which made up 50% of the nominations this year. And many musicians think this is a direct attack on them by the major labels:

In numerous interviews and blog posts since the changes were announced last week, musicians have argued that the changes are meant primarily to reduce the prospects for independent labels.

"Was the show too long?" asked William Spaceman Patterson, a guitarist who has performed or recorded with Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders, Ornette Coleman and Joe Henderson.

The answer to that question is unequivocally NO. The show was not too long...or boring. But obviously the corporate interests have been quite troubled that two jazz musicians have won some of the biggest awards over the past three years, Esperanza Spalding for Best New Artist this year and Herbie Hancock's triumphing over Kanye West in the "Album of the Year" category in 2008:

"I think the fact that they are cutting categories so drastically tells you they know that they have lost touch," Mr. Stoute, who worked at Sony and Interscope Records, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. "When you control the quintessential award, you have a responsibility to stay in the culture and what's going on in the marketplace. As music shifts, and taste changes, you have to make sure you are capturing that."

Which means: Instead of Ms. Spalding (pictured below), Justin Bieber should have won this year because he sold the most albums, not because he was the "best" - which is what the Grammys are all about ...or USED to be about.

And from jazz journalist, Bob Bernotas, comes this quote by the great drummer, Bobby Sanabria:

"What strikes me as strange is that it comes at a time when there are more Latinos in this country than ever before being represented musically in wondrous ways. Besides that, it further marginalizes jazz by having Latin oriented jazz (in all of its manifestations), which is a completely different genre than straight ahead jazz, compete against more traditional forms of jazz. It's apples and oranges. Latin jazz is a category unto itself, has a lengthy history and tradition, and is an established genre. I hate to say it, but it's like the old divide and conquer scenario. Except here it's eliminate and conquer."

Read the article and voice your displeasure with the Grammys. Call them at 877.637.6816 between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. PT or email them at awardschanges@grammy.com.

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