Throwback resplendent in a dark velvety suit and a shirt unbuttoned to the point of parody, Anderson .Paak sauntered up to the stage near the end of Sunday night’s 64th Grammy Awards like a cat toward a bowl of milk.
“We are really trying our hardest to remain humble at this point,” he purred as he clutched the trophy for record of the year — the fourth prize he and his buddy Bruno Mars had won (on four nominations) for “Leave the Door Open,” their lush 1970s-style soul ballad as the duo Silk Sonic. “But in the industry, we call that a clean sweep.”
Indeed they do. Yet why bother with humility? The Grammys, as .Paak and certainly Mars understand, exist precisely to reward music like Silk Sonic’s: lovingly played, exquisitely produced, rooted in tradition with just the slightest sprinkling of modernity to show that the old ways have been pondered and determined still to be useful.
