Jonathan Takiff: Go West, Old Grammy

FOR DEDICATED music fans, the 50th annual Grammy Awards wasn't just one of the most star-studded. It was also the longest — clocking in, all told, at a tad over six hours!

First time in history, the pre-telecast ceremonies at the L.A. Convention Center were streamed live at Grammy.com, starting at 4 p.m., allowing viewers to start tallying winners and losers long before the broadcast portion hit the CBS airwaves at 8 p.m.

By 6:45 p.m., us earlybird specials already knew 100 of the 110 winners. Why, we even knew that Obama had beaten back the Clinton threat. That's right — Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream," had won as best spoken-word album over Bill Clinton's "Giving: How Each of Us Can Change The World."

More prominently in the music scheme, we also knew early that Kanye West had won or shared in three Grammys for his "Graduation" album — including best rap song for "Good Life," best rap solo performance for the tune "Stronger," and earning a support role nod helping out Common on his jam "Southside" (from the set "Finding Forever").

Before the night was over, West also would claim victories as best rap album and announce his agenda to be "the number-one artist in the world." Too bad his mama, a recent heart attack victim, and subject of his performance tribute "Hey Mama," wasn't there to hear him crow.

But West didn't enjoy a clean sweep — Rihanna featuring Jay-Z snapped up rap/song collaboration for "Umbrella," besting (among others) Kanye and T-Pain's "Good Life."

And shock upon shocks, Herbie Hancock's all-star tribute to the music of Joni Mitchell: "River: The Joni Letters," took home the album-of-the-year award — only the second time in Grammy's history that a jazz artist claimed that big honor.

The other big nominee (6x) and fave going in, retro soul rock party animal Amy Winehouse, did even better than Kanye. In the pre-show show she mowed down all the competition, nailing Grammy #81 — best female pop performance and #89 — for pop vocal album for the "Back to Black." The sense of the night also was set early when Mark Ronson, producer of key tracks on the Winehouse disc (and that of fellow Brit revivalist/carouser Lily Allen's breakthrough, though Grammy snubbed "Littlest Thing") was named the year's Best Producer (nonclassical).

Then on the telecast show, Amy continued her victory march, claiming best new artist, song of the year and record of the year. Forced to long distance a performance from London, you gotta wonder if Amy wasn't just a little sorry she didn't go to "Rehab" sooner. Uh, probably not. Rock 'n' roll still loves its rebels. And the truth is, Winehouse's intimate, nightclub styled studio medley of "You Know I'm No Good" and "Rehab" proved a breath of fresh air, compared with the grossly overstuffed spectacles that show producers otherwise felt necessary to fill the Staples Center arena. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to downscale the rest of this behemoth, folks?

Philly talents had a few moments at the Grammys. Sax great Michael Brecker, an Elkins Park native, won two posthumous jazz awards (best instrumental solo and album, individual or group) for his final "Pilgrimage." Jill Scott earned an assist as featured attraction on Lupe Fiasco's "Daydream" (best urban/alternative performance) though she lost out in the R&B album race (as did another homie, Musiq Soulchild) to Chaka Khan.

When the year's fallen talents were recounted, the consummately hip Philadelphia producer Joel Dorn was among the mourned, along with the likes of Beverly Sills, Joe Zawinul, Porter Waggoner and Luciano Pavarotti.

But Philly songwriters Ivan Barias and Carvin Haggins, up for best R&B song for Musiq Soulchild's "Teach Me," lost out to the Alicia Keys hit "No One.

And while he made it to the final three finalists in the audience participation/YouTube promoted Your Grammy Moment contest, Coatesville violinist Brian Fitzgerald didn't get to perform on the Staples Center parking lot with the Foo Fighters, winners of best rock album for "Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace."

Also speaking of viewers choice awards, "American Idol" darling Carrie Underwood took home Grammys for best country song and female vocal performance for her feisty "Before He Cheats" and let on amusingly, to the Internet viewing audience "I voted for myself. I have no shame in that."

The Fab Fiftieth worked hard to connect the then with the now, stylistically and demographically, from a network broadcast opening segment pairing the ghost of Frank Sinatra with a very much alive Alicia Keys on a well synched "Learning the Blues" to a first time collaboration of Barbadian popster Rihanna with a reunited 80s funk rocking The Time on her funkalicious "Don't Stop the Music."

And how 'bout the legs and vocal licks that Tina Turner and Beyonce entangled on "Proud Mary"?

The Fab Four also offered a strong link between yesterday and today, with performances from two creative properties exploiting Beatles music — both up for best compilation soundtrack album. But trust me, both Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas megashow-in-the-round "Love" (which took the award and also a Grammy for best surround-sound disc) and the mind-altering Julie Taymor period flick "Beyond the Universe" look and sound lots grander on stage and screen (respectively) than they did last night.

Other pre-Broadcast moments that made me glad I sat through all six hours of the Grammys? Watching America's oldest surviving bluesmen Pinetop Perkins and Honeyboy Edwards pumping thorugh "Let The Good Times Roll" with Koko Taylor (not looking so young either) before the guys shared in the Grammy for traditional blues album ("Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas"). Look for that one on YouTube and order the album, too.

Also a hoot — seeing folk icon Woody Guthrie cited for best historic album for "The Live Wire," a how-did-they-do-that restoration of a late 1940s concert session captured on a primitive wire recording. *