AMHERST — University of Massachusetts Amherst jazz trombone faculty member Benjamin Barnett says receiving news of his second Grammy nomination was a lot like getting the news that he landed a job at the university: surreal.

Two years ago, he was not yet a professor at the school. He was on stage at New York City’s Town Hall with members of the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and six-time Grammy winner Arturo O’Farrill, performing what would become a live album, “The Original Influencers: Dizzy, Chano & Chico.”

The 2023 recording features the orchestra, as well as special guests Pedrito Martinez on percussion, Donald Harrison on saxophone, singers Daymé Arocena and Melvis Santa, and O’Farrill’s two sons, Adam and Zack, on trumpet and drums.

Now, that album is up for a Grammy for Best Latin Ja

See Full Page