Sarah McKenzie

Berklee College of Music alumna Sarah McKenzie B.M. ’15 will perform live with her quartet. The vocalist and pianist returns to her alma mater on the heels of her second album for Impulse! Records, Paris in the Rain, for one of just two U.S. dates before embarking on a European tour. Joining McKenzie for this special Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival preshow will be guitarist Perry Smith, bassist Dezron Douglas, and drummer Donald Edwards.

After enchanting jazz fans with her 2015 debut, We Could Be Lovers, McKenzie followed up with Paris in the Rain. As before, the 28-year-old native of Melbourne, Australia, teamed with the acclaimed Brian Bacchus—who has produced classics for stars such as Norah Jones, Lizz Wright, and Gregory Porter—to deliver a gorgeous program of jazz classics and originals.

After graduating from Berklee, where she played at the Monterey Jazz Festival and with the Boston Pops, McKenzie moved to Paris, France. The album’s title track is her love letter to the City of Light. In fanciful lyrics, she alternates effortlessly between French and English as she rejoices in the city. “I wanted to write a song that captures all of Paris’s beauty, magic, and spirit,” she said.

Famed New York–area radio station WBGO-FM, WBGO.org, and Berklee present the eighth year of the Checkout—Live at Berklee. The series brings critically acclaimed, New York-based alumni back to their alma mater for concerts at the Red Room at Cafe 939. Shows are webcast live worldwide in high-definition video and available for on-demand listening at checkoutjazz.org. They are broadcast in New York on WBGO-FM on a delayed basis, as a special edition of the Checkout, the acclaimed multimedia show featuring what’s new in New York’s jazz scene.

This is a seated event.