New Orleans Band Tank and The Bangas Wins First Grammy With ‘The Heart, the Mind, the Soul’
[NOLA]
Jon Batiste, jazz pianist Sullivan Fortner and R&B singer Lucky Daye were also winners on Sunday
Tank and the Bangas, the genre-blending New Orleans band that intermingles R&B, funk, jazz, hip-hop and spoken word, finally has its first Grammy Award.
During the pre-broadcast portion of Sunday’s 67th Grammy Awards, the Bangas’ “The Heart, the Mind, the Soul” was voted the Best Spoken Word Poetry album. Bangas vocalist Tarriona “Tank” Ball wrote poetry and participated in spoken word “battles” before the band’s formation. She has incorporated her poetry background into the Bangas’ output and has now won a Grammy for it.
Tank and the Bangas earned a Best New Artist nomination at the 62nd Grammy Awards. The band’s “Red Balloon” was nominated for Best Progressive R&B Album at the 65th Grammy Awards. But Ball and her bandmates came away empty-handed those years.
They fared much better on Sunday.
Three other winners on Sunday have strong ties to New Orleans.
Jazz pianist Sullivan Fortner, a New Orleans native and graduate of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, later earned degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. He was a longtime member of bands led by vibraphonist Stefon Harris and trumpeter Roy Hargrove. Fortner released his debut album as a leader, “Aria,” in 2015.
On Sunday, Fortner won Best Jazz Performance for his collaboration with singer Samara Joy on the song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Me.”
The Samara Joy album that included “Twinkle Twinkle Little Me,” “A Joyful Holiday,” won for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Fortner is featured on several songs on that album but wasn’t listed as a nominee. His album with singer Kurt Elling, “Wildflowers Vol. 1,” was also nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Fortner’s own “Solo Game” was nominated as Best Jazz Instrumental Album but lost to “Remembrance” by Chick Corea and Béla Fleck.
Lucky Daye, whose “Algorithm” was nominated for Best R&B Album, was born David Brown in New Orleans. He moved to Texas, then Atlanta following Hurricane Katrina, and is now based in Los Angeles.
He launched his career in Atlanta by competing on season four of “American Idol.” He went on to write or co-write songs for Mary J. Blige, Boyz II Men, Ne-Yo, Keith Sweat, and Beyoncé while also guesting on dozens of songs. He released his debut full-length album, “Painted,” in 2019. His 2021 EP “Table For Two” won the Grammy for best Progressive R&B Album, an award for nontraditional R&B singers.
On Sunday, Daye’s “That’s You” won for Best Traditional R&B Performance.
Jon Batiste’s Album of the Year Grammy Award in 2022 represented the highest profile win for any musician from the New Orleans area.
Neither Batiste nor any other act with local ties made the list of 2025 nominees in the major categories.
Batiste’s documentary “American Symphony” earned two nominations, including best music film. “It Never Went Away,” a song in the film by Batiste and Dan Wilson, won for Best Song Written for Visual Media.
He’ll be back in his hometown to sing the national anthem at Super Bowl LIX in the Caesars Superdome on Sunday.
The odds favored a New Orleans, or at least a Louisiana, winner in one other category.
Four of the five nominees in the Regional Roots Music Category were native to south Louisiana: Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & the Golden Eagles featuring J’Wan Boudreaux, the New Breed Brass Band featuring Trombone Shorty, The Rumble featuring Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr. and Sean Ardoin & Kreole Rock And Soul.
But the fifth nominee in the category, the Hawaiian artist Kalani Pe’a, ended up taking home the trophy.