Day 3 – January 21, 2017 – TEC Awards
One of the best events at NAMM is the TEC Awards, this year the 32nd, which honors the people and the products driving the pro audio and sound production field. The show also pays tribute to Les Paul with an award and a Hall of Fame inductee, this year Joe Perry of Aerosmith and producer Jack Douglas respectively. With an international crowd of music industry professionals, this is the place to be on NAMM’s Saturday night.
Comedian Sinbad was the funniest Master of Ceremonies and was able to ad lib anytime there was a delay in the music section or a presenter that was not quite ready to go. Lita Ford was one of the many women presenters of the 180 nominees in the 31 categories. These products and projects are the creme de la creme of innovation across sound recordings, live performance, film, television, and video games.
A list of the nominees can be found HERE, as well as a list of the winners at the TEC Awards website HERE.
One of the highlights of the show included Jack Douglas joining the Hall of Fame honorees such as George Lucas, Frank Zappa, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, George Martin as well as the inaugural inductee, Les Paul, whose forward thinking paved the way for many others. The video of Jack’s accomplishments was filled with oohs and aahs as people remembered his contributions to the music industry, or learned about something they did not know about him. The Les Paul award was presented by none other than Johnny Depp, Joe Perry’s band mate in the Hollywood Vampires, who shortly joined him on stage. After Joe’s quick thank-you speech, he did what he does best – play that Les Paul!
He was joined by Brad Whitford, his bookend guitarist in Aerosmith, Rob DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots, Johnny also on guitar, and a special appearance by Alice Cooper. Here they all are rocking out with “Sweet Emotion” a song that had the whole black tie crowd up and dancing!
Attending this award show for the first time was an honor, being not only a journalist but also a professional musician for decades. It was filled with people from the whole gamut of the entire music business; ageless, inspiring, innovative. As this precious industry continues to change, these groundbreaking music pioneers change with the times.
