Historian Brinkley wins Grammy

Rice University history professor Douglas Brinkley won a Grammy Award Feb. 12 in the Large Jazz Ensemble category for producing the Ted Nash Big Band album “President Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom.”

Anchored around the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and led by saxophonist-clarinetist-flutist Ted Nash, “Presidential Suite” includes guest performances by Wynton Marsalis, Andrew Young and others. Nash was inspired to write the original compositions by the words of historic figures Winston Churchill, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Aung Sun Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela, Jawaharlal Nehru, Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“Nash is a musical genius and friend,” Brinkley said. “Collaborating on this heartfelt jazz project with him was a high-water mark for me.”