The Checkout – Live at Berklee: Dayna Stephens 11/15

The Checkout – Live at Berklee, which brings critically acclaimed, New York-based Berklee alumni back to their alma mater for concerts at Cafe 939, continues with rising saxophonist and composer Dayna Stephens '01. Stephens will be joined by guitarist and fellow alumnus Julian Lage '08, as well as his frequent collaborators Kiyoshi Kitagawa on bass, and Justin Brown on drums. 

Presented by Berklee, NPR Music, and WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM, the shows will be webcast live worldwide in high definition over NPRmusic.org and in New York over WBGO-FM as a special edition of The Checkout, the acclaimed multimedia show featuring what’s new on New York’s jazz scene. They will also be archived, and available for on-demand listening, at NPRmusic.org, and Checkoutjazz.org.

Concerts and broadcasts will begin at 8:00 p.m. ET. Tickets are $10 for the general public and $5 with a Berklee ID, and are available at cafe939.com or by calling 617 747-2261. Cafe 939 is located at 939 Boylston Street, in Boston, and is wheelchair accessible. 

Watch Dayna Stephens perform live at Berklee for The Checkout:

Internationally renowned saxophonist, composer, and educator Dayna Stephens is a fluid, vigorous soloist with a warm, soulful sound. He has proven himself as a highly talented composer and arranger, an acclaimed bandleader, and an in-demand sideman. He’s appeared with Terence Blanchard, Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, Stevie Wonder, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Roy Hargrove, and others. Stephens released two albums in 2012. Today Is Tomorrow was first and featured Aaron Parks, Mike Rodriguez, and Julian Lage. This fall’s That Nepenthetic Place will feature Ambrose Akinmusire, Taylor Eigsti, and Gretchen Parlato. His 2007 debut, The Timeless Now, featuring John Scofield, Ben Street, Eric Harland, and Nick Vayenas, garnered four stars in DownBeat, and reached #11 on the Billboard jazz charts.

WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM serves the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area with mainstream jazz, blues, and award-winning news and public affairs programming. Non-commercial WBGO is supported by nearly 17,000 annual members and has over 400,000 weekly broadcast listeners. WBGO also streams its broadcast signal to audiences worldwide at www.wbgo.org. WBGO was named the “Jazz Station of the Year” by the Gavin Report and is also the recipient of the Blues Foundation’s “Keeping the Blues Alive Award” for Achievement in Non-Commercial Radio. WBGO is a publicly supported, cultural institution that champions jazz, an American art form, and presents news to a worldwide audience through radio, other technologies, and events.

NPR Music celebrates great music in every genre and is an industry leader in music discovery. The free, multimedia Web site (npr.org/music) offers 300 new features monthly and an extensive archive, in collaboration with NPR’s newsmagazines, 12 public radio member stations, and the passionate NPR community. NPR Music creates and distributes inventive music coverage across multiple platforms – from web, to radio, to podcast, to mobile, to social media, to live events – with first listens of new albums, live performances, concerts at the Tiny Desk, interviews, reviews, and blogs.