WGBO presents: The Checkout @ Berklee with Seamus Blake December 7, 2011

Famed New York area NPR jazz station WGBO Jazz 88.3 FM/wgbo.org and Berklee College of Music are teaming up to present the first ever NPR concert series showcasing Berklee alumni. The Checkout - Live at Berklee, broadcast live from Berklee's Red Room @ Cafe 939, will bring critically acclaimed, New York-based performers back to Berklee for performances broadcast live in New York to WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM/wbgo.org's 350,000 listeners and streamed worldwide on NPRmusic.org. The shows will also be audio podcast from Checkoutjazz.org and from NPRmusic.org.

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. John Scofield, in whose Quiet Band Blake appears, has called him, “extraordinary, a total saxophonist.”

Official Website: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=297511340276817