Santa Mónica, USA - Recipients of the 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award and Trustees Award were announced today by the Recording Academy®. Recording artists Van Cliburn, The Funk Brothers, Ella Jenkins, Sonny Rollins, Artie Shaw and Doc Watson will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards. Jazz producer Orrin Keepnews, songwriting team Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and pianist/radio host Marian McPartland will be honored with Trustees Awards. Formal acknowledgment of the awards will be made in conjunction with the 46th Annual GRAMMY® Awards ceremony, which will be held at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 8, 2004. The show will be a prime-time television special on the CBS Television Network.

"The Lifetime Achievement and Trustees Awards recognize music people who have made the greatest impact on our culture," said Neil Portnow, President of the Academy. "These recipients are being honored as legendary performers, cultural ambassadors, archetypal musicians and profoundly inspiring figures. Their outstanding accomplishments and passion for their craft have created a timeless legacy that has positively affected multiple generations, and will continue to influence generations to come."

The Lifetime Achievement Award honors lifelong artistic contributions to the recording medium while the Trustees Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the industry in a non-performing capacity. Both special merit awards are decided by vote of the Recording Academy's National Trustees. The recipients will be officially acknowledged in a ceremony during GRAMMY Week in Los Angeles, which culminates with the GRAMMY Awards.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT HONOREES (Alphabetical)

A two-time GRAMMY® Award winner, Van Cliburn has arguably become the best-known classical musician in history since he won the First International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 at the height of the Cold War. In his illustrious career, Cliburn has performed with every major orchestra and conductor, and has performed for every U.S. president since Harry Truman (and for royalty and heads of state in Europe, Asia and South America). Cliburn's recording of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto was the first classical recording ever to sell enough copies to be certified platinum. In 2001 he was inducted into the American Classical Hall of Fame. In 2002 he was presented with the Recording Academy President's Merit Award, and received honors from the Kennedy Center for the unique and invaluable contribution he has made to the cultural life of our nation.

As the only studio musicians on all of Motown's hits in its golden years, The Funk Brothers created the instrumental sound for, and played on, more hit records than the Beatles, Beach Boys and Rolling Stones combined. Their creativity and unique approach to soul and funk shaped the sound of music throughout the world, from the time they released their first recording 40 years ago to today. Recently their story was depicted in the documentary Standing In The Shadows Of Motown, the soundtrack of which won them their first GRAMMY for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For A Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media at the 45th Annual GRAMMY Awards. The Funk Brothers won their second GRAMMY that same year.

From the beginning of her career in 1956, GRAMMY-nominated folk singer Ella Jenkins has been a cornerstone of children's music. Over the course of the past five decades, she has established herself as a musician whose reach extends beyond her target audience into the realm of adults and educators. Jenkins was the first performer to take her music into schools and teach music while incorporating respect for diversity. She has educated children about everything from reading and geography to multiculturalism and the environment, and through her famous Adventures in Rhythm workshops, she has taught music teachers as well. Literally thousands of musicians who now make their living performing in schools and family concerts are indebted to Jenkins for paving the way.

Sonny Rollins stands as one of the all-time great tenor saxophonists. After making his recording debut in 1949, Rollins recorded with many acclaimed jazz musicians including J.J. Johnson, Bud Powell, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. His series of brilliant recordings for labels Prestige, Blue Note, Contemporary and Riverside in the 1950s made him one of the most acclaimed tenor saxophonists of his generation. A Milestone recording artist since 1972, Rollins' skill at turning unlikely material into jazz and his rhythmic freedom and tonal distortions has not diminished over the years. Rollins recently won a GRAMMY for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual Or Group at the 44th Annual GRAMMY Awards for This Is What I Do.

Perhaps the most renowned jazz clarinetist, Artie Shaw led five orchestras during the swing era, all of them unique and memorable. Of his recordings, "Begin The Beguine" in 1938 made him a star and his orchestra one of the most popular in the world. Other greats include "Any Old Time" with Billie Holiday, "Frenesi," "Stardust," "Concerto For Clarinet" and "Summit Ridge Drive." In 1955, Artie Shaw permanently gave up the clarinet to pursue his dreams of being a writer, but did return to music as the frontman for a reorganized Artie Shaw Orchestra in 1983.

Arthel "Doc" Watson is one of the most influential folk/country guitar players of our time, and his beautiful voice, great instrumental talent, and mastery of traditional material and have made him an American treasure. Watson sings and picks with an emotional authenticity that is unsurpassed, and many of today's great artists -- including Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill and Emmylou Harris -- acknowledge his influence. Additionally, Watson's encyclopedic knowledge of American traditional songs has provided a cultural service by preserving the legacy of music in our country. He has been performing and recording for five decades, and during this time has won six GRAMMY Awards, including Best Traditional Folk Album at the 45th Annual GRAMMY Awards in New York.

TRUSTEES AWARD HONOREES (Alphabetical)

One of the most respected of all jazz producers, Orrin Keepnews began his long, productive and still-ongoing recording career in 1953 as co-founder of the legendary Riverside label. While at Riverside, his creative guidance helped launch or advance the careers of many jazz greats, including Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, and Cannonball Adderley. In the late '60s he initiated another remarkable body of work at Milestone Records, involving significant artists including Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Lee Konitz and Joe Henderson. Keepnews' occasional ventures outside jazz have ranged from the Staple Singers to the Kronos Quartet. He has served in executive roles, has written award-winning liner notes, and remains active as a free-lance producer. Throughout his career, Keepnews has continued to develop classic reissue packages for several major labels, including such classic figures as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker.

Together, the songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King has written a string of hits including "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," "Take Good Care Of My Baby," "The Loco-Motion," "Go Away Little Girl," and "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman." They were among the most inventive and successful of the Brill Building songwriting teams. In addition to an extremely successful songwriting career as a team, both Goffin and King have earned accolades as singer/songwriters in their own rights. In 1990, Goffin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. King has earned four GRAMMY Awards, three as an artist and one for writing James Taylor's "You've Got A Friend."

Marian McPartland's program Piano Jazz, which has aired on National Public Radio since 1978, presents McPartland and her guests as they reminisce, improvise, and swap stories, songs, and techniques about jazz. In addition, McPartland formed her own Halycon label and recorded several acclaimed albums, and has composed material that has been recorded by Tony Bennett and Peggy Lee, among others. McPartland maintains a busy schedule recording, touring, lecturing and teaching year-round. She is deeply committed to music education in the country's public schools and was inducted in the International Association for Jazz Education Hall of Fame in 1986. In 1983, Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz received a George Foster Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting. In 2001, McPartland and her program were honored with a "Gracie" - the Gracie Allen Award given by American Women in Radio and Television - and the National Music Council's American Eagle Award.

Established in 1957, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., also known as the Recording Academy, is dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural conditions for music and its makers. An organization of musicians, producers and other recording professionals, the Recording Academy is internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards, and is responsible for numerous ground-breaking outreach, professional development, cultural enrichment, education and human services programs.

[Photo of Doc Watson].