SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Count Basie, Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, Al Green and Joni Mitchell are recipients of the 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.
The recording academy's Trustees Award goes to engineer-producer Tom Dowd and rock disc jockey Alan Freed.
"The recipients of these awards are in a rarified league all their own. They are a prestigious group of diverse and influential creators who have given us some of the most distinctive and seminal recordings of the last century," academy President Michael Greene said Tuesday.
The awards will be presented Feb. 27 during the 44th annual Grammy Awards ceremonies at the Los Angeles Staples Center. The show will be broadcast by CBS-TV.
The Lifetime Achievement Award honors lifelong artistic contributions to recordings while the Trustees Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the industry in a non-performing capacity. Academy trustees voted on the special merit awards during a May meeting.