Saxophone player Jimmy Greene paid tribute to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings that killed 20 first-grade children and six adults, including his daughter.
Greene recorded a jazz album called "Beautiful Life" which garnered two Grammy nominations last Monday. The nominations were best arrangement, instruments and vocals for “When I Come Home” and best jazz instrumental album for “Beautiful Life."
The album is a tribute for the young children and the educators that were slain in the horrific shooting incident back in 2012. Greene lost her six-year-old daughter, Ana Marquez-Greene. According to an interview posted by News Times, Greene told them about the Grammy nomination. “It’s amazing, but to be honest with you I wish the album never had to be made. I wish my little girl were here; that I didn’t have to pay tribute to her, that I could have her here. It’s very bittersweet.”
He also talked about the process of creating the album. "It was incredibly painful at the time the songs were written. It was a few months after she was killed. I was at my work station where I compose and my face wet with tears doing a lot of the writing, but I really felt like I wanted the world to hear a little bit about how my daughter lived.”
CBC News also talked with Greene regarding her daughter, saying, "Ana was a little girl who loved life and she loved who she was. She was able to connect people and be friends with people from many different backgrounds. On the album you see the diversity of musical contributions kind of mirrors that aspect of her life."
Musicians from around the world have reached out to Greene, offering their talents in creating the album. This icludes musicians from Hartford Symphony Orchestra and a choir from Winnipeg's Linden Christian School where Ana and her brother Isaiah both attended when the family lived in Winnipeg.
Greene and his wife, Nelba, established The Ana Grace Project in 2013, in which a portion of the profit of the album will be used. A portion will also be given to the Artists' Collective. The song "Saludos/Come Thou Almighty King," includes a clip of Ana singing while Isaiah plays the piano, recorded a year before the shooting incident.