The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album (previously: Best Pop Instrumental Album) is an award presented at the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

s, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instr ...

albums in the

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describ ...

genre. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy A ...

of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position". The award was first presented to Joe Jackson in 2001. According to the category description guide for the

52nd Grammy Awards The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards took place on January 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009. Neil Young was honored as the 2010 MusiCares Pe ...

, the award is presented to albums containing "at least 51% playing time of newly recorded pop instrumental tracks". As of 2020,

Larry Carlton Larry Eugene Carlton (born March 2, 1948) is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts such as Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. He has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorded ...

, Booker T. Jones and

Snarky Puppy Snarky Puppy is an American instrumental band led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won four Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalis ...

are the only musicians to receive the award more than once.

Gerald Albright Gerald Albright is an American jazz saxophonist. He earned Grammys for 24/7 in 2012 and Slam Dunk in 2014 and has been nominated for New Beginnings in 2008 and for Sax for Stax in 2009. Biography Born in Los Angeles, Albright grew up in its ...

has received the most nominations, with six. The award goes to the artist, producer and engineer/mixer of more than 50% of playing time on the winning album. A producer or engineer/mixer who worked on ''less'' than 50% of playing time, as well as the mastering engineer, can apply for a Winners Certificate. In 2015, the category was renamed Best Contemporary Instrumental Album and moved from the Pop category field to the Contemporary category field. The category description did not change.

Recipients

Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.
An award was presented to James R. Jensen as the producer of the album.

References

;General * Note: User must select the "Pop" category as the genre under the search feature. ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Grammy Award For Best Pop Instrumental Album Album awards Awards established in 2001 Contemporary Instrumental Album Contemporary Instrumental Album

Recipients

See also

References