WGBH's Eric Jackson to Host Boston Broadcast

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	Donald Harrison

The Boston portion of the broadcast will be performed and heard from 7-8:00 pm Eastern Time, December 31. Toast of the Nation will be heard nationally on NPR stations, and Sirius Satellite Radio, as well as overseas on NPR Worldwide, and the American Forces Radio network. This year's broadcast begins at 6:00 PM Eastern Time at the Sunside jazz club in Paris, crosses the Atlantic to Harrison and Berklee in Boston, moves on to Washington DC's Kennedy Center, with an all-star tribute to Shirley Horn; then to New York at both the Apollo Theater, and Jazz at Lincoln Center's new home; to Clarksdale, Mississippi and Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero Blues Club; Denver, where the Latin Giants of Jazz play mambo and cha cha for a thousand dancers; and closes out the night with the Joshua Redman Trio, at Yoshi's in Oakland, California. And, it's all going to be captured and broadcast in the new FM audiophile format, 5.1 Surround for FM.

Performing on New Year's at Berklee will be Donald Harrison's young, high-energy working quintet, which he has toured around the world. Their repertoire will likely include some post-bop, some New Orleans 2nd Line sounds, and some surprises, too. Donald is a 1983 alumnus of the college, a New Orleans native, and well known for his time in the Jazz Messengers, and his group, which he co-led with trumpeter Terence Blanchard.

Harrison is something of an entertainer in the New Orleans tradition, a polymath, in addition to being a superb saxophonist and composer. He's been known to dance and sing, even rap, a little! In recent years he has recorded his bands and projects for the Impulse, Candid, and Nagel Heyer labels, as well as his own First New Orleans imprint.

This is a sort of Berklee homecoming, in that all but one of his group are alumni of the college. Trumpeter Christian Scott, who also happens to be Donald's nephew, has just graduated after a sensational Berklee career; he has been playing in Harrison's groups since his mid-teens. Drummer John Lamkin has toured all over the world with Harrison, is a fixture on the New York scene, and is also well known in Boston as the lynchpin drummer at Wally's Paradise, years ago. Bassist Luques Curtis also holds the bass chair in Gary Burton's Next Generation band. And his brother Zaccai, a recent NEC grad, is the group's pianist. Luques and Zaccai are both originally from Hartford, CT.

The performance will be in an intimate club setting at Berklee, and is a fundraiser for WGBH-FM. The price is $150 for one ticket, $300 for a pair. The offer includes membership in the WGBH Jazz Club, and in the station's Leadership Circle at the $300 price point. Light dinner, drinks, and Harrison's "Paradise Found" CD, are included. Harrison is expected to meet with audience members, and sign CDs, after the show. Please call WGBH at 888-897-9424 to reserve seats.

Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principle that the best way to prepare students for careers in music was through the study and practice of contemporary music. For over half a century, the college has evolved constantly to reflect the state of the art of music and the music business. With over a dozen performance and nonperformance majors, a diverse and talented student body representing over 70 countries, and a music industry "who's who" of alumni, Berklee is the world's premier learning lab for the music of today — and tomorrow.

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Rob Hayes
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rhayes@berklee.edu