“I can’t wait,” Adam Long said in anticipation of the 53nd Annual Grammy Awards. “We are going to go and have a blast.”
At first sight there is nothing spectacular about Long’s response, considering last week’s announcement that Fela! was in the running for best show recording.
Long recorded the Orginal Broadway Cast show recording in New York and mixed it in his home studio in St. Louis. Fela! also included the multi-talented St. Louis native Hettie Barnhill in the cast.
What is spectacular is that Long offered his two cents about Fela!’s Grammy nomination nearly six months before the nominations were announced – all the way back in June, when Fela! was up for several Tony Awards. The show would garner three wins.
He prophetically predicted the nomination of the recording he recorded and mixed alongside famed Broadway cast recording producer Robert Sher.
Sher has come to rely so heavily on Long that the Broadway producer now rents an apartment in St. Louis just downstairs from Long’s home studio, where local hip-hoppers and church choirs are just as comfortable as Broadway’s best.
Like those eerie self-fulfilling instances everyone has experienced, there was something in the tone of his voice that would have had anyone accept it as truth when he said it.
“You can predict who can be nominated, but you can’t predict who’s going to win,” Long said. “We’re really excited, and we believe our biggest competition is American Idiot” (he has a wicked sense of humor).
He was too excited – or too humble and gracious – to say “I told you so” when the Grammy people proved him right.
How could he have known?
Long believes that the popularity of both the Broadway production and the late Fela himself had something to do with it.
“And it doesn’t hurt that Jay-Z and Will Smith are behind it,” Long said, citing the executive producers behind the project.
Long’s instincts could have served him correctly in part because of his own personal history. This is the third year in a row that he has been a member of not one but two teams – two teams, all three years – that were up for music’s most coveted award.
All three years, the two nominations have been for Orginal Broadway Cast Recording, and Rock or Rap Gospel (always gospel, for this guy).
In 2008 Long’s efforts helped St. Louis gospel hip-hop artist Flame break barriers for St. Louis’ inspirational music scene when he earned a nomination for “Best Rock Or Rap Gospel Album.” Flame’s Our World Redeemed was the only Christian Rap album to be nominated for the entire list of nominations that year.
Long – an adopted son of St. Louis who works out of a home recording studio in the Central West End – claims to have no magic formula for his success.
“Luck and hard work – that’s all I can say,” Long said as he thought about the other nominations that have come over the past few years. “There are people out there who are as talented – and better – than I am, so there’s an element of luck.”
Long also worked with Flame’s Cross Movement Records label mate LeCrae for his album Rehab . The record is currently among the 2010 competitors for the same Grammy that Flame was in the running for in 2008.
He’s excited about all of the others, but feels a special connection to Fela! through the history he had with the music of the title character, Nigerian bandleader Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
In the 1990s he produced rebel radio for Radio Kudirat, which worked to overthrow then Nigerian dictator Gen. Sani Abacha . He worked with Nigeria political refugees in St. Louis, and Fela’s music was routinely a part of Long’s existence in the movement – which earned him a spot on Abacha’s lengthy death list, according to Long’s contact at the rebel radio station.
“I love the wonderful rebellious political spirit of this one,” Long said about his work on the Fela! original cast recording. “It was in line with the feelings that we had with Radio Kudirat.”
Long helped build a bridge for change that stretched from Africa to St. Louis. Now, through Fela!, that bridge has expanded to reach some of the most influential individuals in the world.
“The crazy thing is that I was reading about Michelle Obama attending a performance of the play and being ecstatic about it,” Long said. “We are only guessing that she bought a copy of the record, but it could be playing in the White House right now.”
The thought of the First Lady rocking out to Fela! at home!
The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards will air on CBS on February 13. Check Local listings for time and details.
