Joni Mitchell, Al Green, Perry Como Among Lifetime Achievement Honorees

NEW YORK (Trustees Awards) - Joni Mitchell, Al Green, Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, and band leader/pianist Count Basie will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 44th Annual GRAMMY Awards on Feb. 27 in Los Angeles.

In addition, the Trustees Awards honorees for non-performers have also been announced. DJ Alan Freed (who coined the term "rock and roll") and producer/engineer Tom Dowd will take this year's honors.

Recording Academy president Michael Greene said the five musicians had "given us some of the most distinctive and seminal recordings of the last century" and had left a timeless legacy. Recordings by all five artists have already been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Basie, one of the most influential bandleaders of the swing era, died in 1984, and Como, who epitomized the relaxed popular style of the 1950s, died in May. Clooney made her name in the 1950s as a jazz-based vocalist with recordings such as "Come on-a My House" and later collaborated with legends such as Duke Ellington and Bing Crosby.

Soul singer Al Green's hit singles of the 1970s, such as "Let's Stay Together" and "Tired of Being Alone" have become pop classics, while Canadian-born Joni Mitchell emerged from the 1960s folk scene to embrace pop, rock and jazz, all infused with her distinctive voice and syncopated rhythms.

Disc jockey Alan Freed, who helped popularize rock 'n' roll in the 1950s through television and radio shows will receive a Trustees Award along with engineer and producer Tom Dowd, whose use of stereo recordings in the early 1950s revolutionized the way music was recorded.

The winners will be acknowledged during Grammy award week in Los Angeles in February 27th (44th Annual GRAMMY Awards).