WBGO Blog

  • Your vote can help WBGO win a Chase Community Giving grant!

    May 4, 2011. Posted by Brandy Wood.

    Add new comment | Filed under: chasegiving, jazz, Jazz Community, wbgo

    WBGO is in the running to win a Chase Community Giving grant - a program created by Chase to give to small and local charities. Through the Facebook app, Chase Community Giving, people with a Faceook account can vote to help determine which small and local non profits will receive donations totally $5,000,000 from Chase's philanthropy funds this spring.

    Update: Voting ends in less than 10 hours. We are currently ranked at #101 and we need your help to get back in the game. Please do the following as soon as you can:

    1. Vote
    2. Tell your friends. Copy and past this message into your Facebook, Twitter, or other social media status:

    Please support WBGO Jazz88 in the #chasegiving competition which ends at 11:59pm tonight. Vote here http://bit.ly/dPt0Af

    (please feel free to add your own personal touch)
    3. Email friends about the contest & WBGO!
    Read more

    © 2011 WBGO

  • WBGO Celebrates Jazz Apprecitation Month

    April 1, 2011. Posted by Brandy Wood.

    Add new comment | Filed under: Jazz Community, Jazz Education, Live Music, WBGO Community Events

    April is Jazz Appreciation Month and here at WBGO we are also appreciating our members in several ways.

    April 8-10 is Member Appreciation Weekend with special thank you gifts for new and renewing members. There is also a very special live broadcast from the WBGO performance studio in Newark on April 9 @ 3pm with Dr. Lonnie Smith!

    Dr. Lonnie Smith
    Dr. Lonnie Smith

    You can also join us on the following Saturdays at 12:30pm for a free WBGO Kids Jazz Concert :

    April 9 - Michael Carvin Quartet @ Burgdorff Cultural Center
    April 16 - Helen Sung @ Montclair Art Museum
    April 30 - Tia Fuller @ Newark Museum
    May 7 - Jon Faddis @ New Jersey Performing Arts Center - Victoria Theater

    We celebrate on air with an incredible lineup of student ensembles during the Jazz Appreciation Month Student Broadcast Festival live weekdays at 2pm. Hosted by Michael Bourne with series is produced with support from Berklee College of Music Summer Programs:

    April 1 – NYU, Wayne Shorter Ensemble
    April 4 – Queens College
    April 6 – William Paterson
    April 8 – New School – The New School Jazz JAM Ensemble, directed by Richard Boukas
    April 11 – Manhattan School of Music
    April 12 – Juilliard
    April 18 – SUNY Purchase – Purchase Jazz Endeavor (Jazz Combo)
    April 20 – NJCU – NJCU Jazz Ensemble directed by Ed Joffe
    April 22 – Rutgers – Rutgers New Brunswick Jazz Ensemble
    April 26 – Berklee College of Music
    April 28 – LaGuardia High School

    There are other special broadcasts during this appreciation month, including:

    April 7, 3pm - Live in studio performance by Marcia Ball
    April 13, 9pm - Josh Jackson hosts Live at the Village Vanguard featuring Martial Solal
    April 14, 8pm - Newark Today with Mayor Cory Booker
    April 22, 8pm - The Mingus Orchestra recorded live at St. Bart’s in Manhattan

    © 2011 WBGO

  • WBGO at the Portland Jazz Festival: Part 1

    February 25, 2011. Posted by Alex Rodriguez.

    Add new comment | Filed under: Jazz Community, Jazz Education
    thara esperanza
    Photo by Michael Bell

    This week, WBGO web producer and Portland, Oregon native Alex W. Rodriguez traveled to his hometown to attend the Portland Jazz Festival. How has jazz in his hometown fared, eight years after he left for the East Coast? Watch this space to find out, as Alex shares his experiences throughout the main festival weekend.

    Although the Portland Jazz Festival is *technically* halfway over, with five days of local and national acts having blown through town, things really started to heat up yesterday. Not only was clarinetist Don Byron in town to play an eclectic set of jazz-infused klezmer music inspired by the late singer/comedian Mickey Katz, but the city's local hero, media darling and consummate musician Esperanza Spalding (pictured) made her first public appearance at Portland State University. Read more

    © 2011 WBGO