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82 S P R I N G 2 0 2 0 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y This year's show was hosted by SNL alumnus Fred Armisen, who started the show with some "prop comedy." He showed the first in-ear monitors—a pair of headphones with old-fashioned ear trumpets attached—he showed curved drumsticks and then put on a pair of gloves with drumsticks attached and proceeded to sit at and play the drums surprisingly well. The evening had been kicked off by a performance of a medley of songs by The Ventures with guitarists Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, Steve Lukather, and Elliot Easton performing. Skunk then presented Don Wilson with a Music for Life Award. The most anticipated award was the Les Paul Innovation Award, which was given to Joni Mitchell for her outstanding body of work. The award was announced by the Foundation's Executive Director, Michael Braunstein, who called Mitchell "a true renaissance woman." Herbie Hancock presented the award after a highlight reel displaying many of Joni's accomplishments over the years. He said that Joni had the four elements that characterize a true creator and innovator: 1. An unquenchable curiosity into the world and what makes it tick, 2. An obsessive nature that allows you to look at the world in fresh ways, 3. An exceptional correlative intelligence which he defined as the ability to draw parallels between different mediums, and 4. A courageous and brave nature. He summed it up by saying, "Joni Mitchell is a badass," and the audience erupted in cheers. Joni was there and remained at her table while Herbie brought the award to her. She gracefully accepted it and said she was "truly honored." There followed a tribute to her with four artists singing some of her iconic songs. Suzanne Santo performed "River," Kevin Ross did "A Case of You," Weyes Blood sang "Woodstock," and Venice performed "Free Man in Paris." Earlier in the evening, Dave Pensado and Herb Trawick, the duo behind the web series Pensado's Place, were named recipients of the 2020 TEC Hall of Fame Award. The award was presented by Maureen Droney, the senior managing director of the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers wing. Pensado said that "I've always felt like the next best thing to music is to talk about it." Trawick paid tribute to Maurice White who had been one of his mentors by saying that Maurice gave him a compliment by saying, "You listen like me, you listen like a musician." The awards were announced by several pairs of celebrities throughout the evening. The first pair were Andrew Huang and Leland Sklar. Lee Sklar is a world-renowned bass player who has been around for some time. He made the joke, "This is my first time presenting and someone asked me what I was going to wear. Depends!" The other pairs of presenters were Dawn Birr and Brian Hardgrove, Tony Baraz and Bishop Lamont, and Lisa Loeb and Elliot Easton. Three companies won two awards in Outstanding Technical Achievement, a first for this awards show. They were Genelec, Universal Audio, and API. The big surprise for me was that FabFilter for its Pro-Q 3 beat out iZotope's RX7 in the Signal Processing Software (Dynamics/EQ/Utilities) category. The Outstanding Creative Achievement Awards for Record Production - Single or Track went to Billie Eilish's "Bad Guy," for Record Production—album to Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's A Star Is Born, and those for Television Sound Production to Game of Thrones, and Film Sound Production to Bohemian Rhapsody. All in all, a very entertaining evening. Congratulations to all of the winners. • NAMM TEC Awards Recap by Peter Kelsey CAS O n Saturday, January 18, 2020, awards in 23 technical and eight creative excellence categories were handed out at the 35th Annual NAMM TEC Awards. This event occurs annually during the NAMM show and is presented by the NAMM Foundation to companies and individuals whose products and outstanding work contribute to innovation and excellence in sound in: recordings, live performances, movies, television, video games, and multimedia. Les Paul Innovation Award recipient Joni Mitchell with presenter Herbie Hancock