WBGO Blog

  • Who's playing this Auld Lang Syne?

    December 13, 2011. Posted by Becca Pulliam.

    Add new comment | Filed under: Auld Lang Syne, Great Live Moments, toast of the nation

    As heard on a recenttoast_of_the_nation_logoand (hint) at 6:30 tonight on JazzSet

    Ever since approximately 1980, WBGO and NPR Music have been presenting live jazz from coast to coast on New Year's Eve. That's a lot of midnights and impromptu versions of Auld Lang Syne, one of the least jazzy of all melodies!

    From now until New Year's Eve, our goal is to post one Auld Lang Syne a day, and ask you who's playing? Can you recognize the musicians, or do you remember the setting? The year? Was it the beginning of a great new year, or the ending of a better one?

    For the 2011 New Year's Eve line-up, visit wbgo.org/toast

    © 2011 WBGO

  • Chestnut, Green, Heath and Payton .. A Celebration in Swing on JazzSet

    December 9, 2011. Posted by Becca Pulliam.

    Add new comment | Filed under: Benny Green, cyrus chestnut, Jazz Alive, JazzSet, toast of the nation

    111208 Cyrus3FromJordy

    Benny Green photo by Fran Kaufman

    Party with Cyrus Chestnut and Benny Green at two pianos this Sunday, December 11, at 6pm and Wednesday, December 14,  at 6:30 . NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath and Nicholas Payton add more fun, with Dezron Douglas on bass and Willie Jones III on drums. Put on your dancing shoes one more once for this New Year's Eve 2010-11 set, says host Dee Dee Bridgewater . . . .

    © 2011 WBGO

  • Toast of the Nation Highlights

    February 4, 2011. Posted by Alex Rodriguez.

    Add new comment | Filed under: toast of the nation

    An annual production of WBGO

    The Lionel Loueke Trio on New Year's Eve
    photo by Paul Marotta

    This week, the European Broadcasting Union aired a 90-minute program of highlights from the 2010/2011 edition of Toast of the Nation.

    We thought that anyone who missed out the first time might want to check it out, so we've posted it here in all its glory. And if you didn't catch the whole thing the first time around, this is a great chance to hear the rest of the music.

    The lineup includes performances in New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago, Denver and San Francisco. You'll hear a wide range of music, from Lionel Loueke (pictured) to Jon Faddis to Von Freeman to Dianne Reeves.

    (East Coasters who had passed out by 3 am: check out the Dianne Reeves set from Yoshi's.)

    Without further ado, highlights from New Year's 2011 Toast of the Nation, as heard by our friends in Europe:

    Part I:

    Part II:

    © 2011 WBGO