One of Berklee's strongest ensembles helps celebrate the arrival of Massachusetts's first African American governor.

By Allen Bush
Berklee.edu Correspondent
January 31, 2007

Berklee's City Music All-Stars perform for guests at Governor Deval Patrick's inauguration. Photo by Phil Farnsworth

The buzz was electric and people were ecstatic dressed in their best party clothes on the first Thursday evening of 2007. Old and young representing every neighborhood in Boston were united on January 4 in one of the city's largest rooms, the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, to celebrate the inauguration of the new governor of Massachusetts, Deval L. Patrick, and his lieutenant governor, Timothy P. Murray.

Music had as much to do with the atmosphere that night as did the thrill of victory from the election of the state's first African-American governor and first democratic leader since 1991. Berklee students, faculty, and alumni were among those invited to play and they arrived with plenty of jazz, funk, blues, Latin, and r&b tunes to help entertain more than 10,000 guests who partied over three floors.

Billed as the "Mambo King," Eguie Castrillo, associate professor of percussion, and his group performed high-energy Latin music late in the evening for people who stayed to dance rather than leave the party. Assistant professor of guitar Thaddeus Hogarth played two sets of blues, funk, and original music with his group. Alumni saxophone player Andre Ward performed his smooth jazz seasoned with gospel and r&b tones.

One couldn't miss Bruce Bartlett, associate professor of guitar, on a raised platform in the third floor atrium, just outside the grand ballroom. Anyone who arrived on the third floor heard the funk and jazz of Bartlett's group, which played the longest set of the evening, lasting more than four hours.

Behind Bartlett, the grand ballroom accommodated 4,000 people. As the crowd waited for the eventual arrival of Patrick, who would end his long day there, the room filled to standing-room-only capacity.

Those who got the good seats early were treated to a dynamic performance from the Berklee City Music All-Star Ensemble—a group composed of students from Greater Boston's urban neighborhoods who study at the college on scholarship under the Berklee City Music program. Director Winston Maccow, an assistant professor in the ensemble department, used the gig as a warm-up for the group's three-city tour of the West Coast that began a few days after the inauguration.

Performing a set of Latin jazz, r&b, and soul music—including Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" that brought people streaming onto the dance floor—were vocalists Ashley Rodriguez, Erin Lyder, Shakyma Horacius, and Apollo Payton; guitarist Patrick Faherty; Abraham Olivo on keys; Anant Pradhan on saxophone; bassist Anthony Nembhard; drummer Sheldon Thwaites; and percussionist Alfonso Malave, Jr.

Later in the evening, Walter Beasley took the stage in front of old fans and many others who became new followers. The saxophonist and vocalist is a professor in Berklee's ensemble department and a well-known performer across the U.S. with a new CD, Ready for Love. The ballroom was packed for his contemporary jazz and he lifted the crowd higher for Patrick and Murray's eventual appearance.

Allen Bush is Berklee's director in the Office of Public Information.