The Checkout-Live at Berklee, featuring Seamus Blake December 7, 2011

Famed New York area jazz station WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM/wbgo.org, NPR, and Berklee College of Music are teaming up to present the first ever NPR concert series showcasing Berklee alumni. The Checkout – Live at Berklee will bring critically acclaimed, New York-based Berklee alumni back to Boston for a series of homecoming concerts at Berklee’s Cafe 939. The concerts will be broadcast live worldwide over NPR.org/thecheckout and in New York over WBGO as a special edition of The Checkout, the acclaimed multimedia show featuring what’s new on the New York jazz scene.

New York-based tenor saxophonist and composer Seamus Blake is widely recognized as one of the finest exponents of contemporary jazz. Born in England and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Blake is a Berklee graduate. In 2002, he took the first prize in the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition. His recent album, Live in Italy, described as “one of the elute albums of the year,” earned a 4.5/5 stars rating in DownBeat. A longstanding member of the acclaimed Mingus Big Bands, he continues to work with this group and a host of others.