NPR Music and WBGO/Jazz 88.3FM Ring in 2014 with New Year's Eve Celebration on Toast Of The Nation

NEWARK, N.J. - Dec. 27, 2013 - PRLog -- WBGO, the jazz source in Newark, NJ, and NPR Music invite you to an all-night New Year’s Eve musical feast of jazz, Latin, classical and spirituals.  Swing out the old year and ring in the new with listeners from coast to coast and around the world. Beginning December 31 at 9:00 pm and continuing until 5:00 am New Year’s morning, the music will feature theDonald Harrison Quintet, Cécile McLorin Salvant with the Aaron Diehl Trio, the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Paquito D’Rivera and the Kaia String Quartet, Convergence with special guest Larry Goldings and Bobby McFerrin and the spirityouall band.

There will be countdowns to midnight for listeners in Eastern, Central and Mountain Time with a special celebration of music in Pacific Time as NPR Music and Newark, NJ, NPR member station WBGO-Jazz 88.3 FM/wbgo.org join forces to co-produce the swinging, eight-hour jazz party. For local NPR stations and broadcast times, visit www.NPR.org/stations or www.wbgo.org/toast, where you can also stream the broadcast live on New Year’s Eve.

Toast of the Nation presents a potpourri of performances from jazz spots across the country, including the live celebrations at Berklee College of Music in Boston and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center; and concerts from TheKennedy Center in Washington, DC; Chicago’s Mayne Stage; a stop at Denver’s every-night jazz spotDazzleJazz; and the closing set from the 56th Monterey Jazz Festival in California.

WBGO’s Rhonda Hamilton anchors the all-night broadcast and Josh Jackson MC’s the live set from Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in New York City.

Toast of the Nation repeats on New Year’s Day on WBGO noon to 6:00 pm. The performances will be available for online listening after January 3, 2013, at nprmusic.org/toastofthenation.

Toast of the Nation Live jazz on New Year’s Evehas been continuously broadcast by NPR since December 31, 1977. The 2004 edition was the highest-fidelity live radio broadcast in history, transmitting in 5.1 discrete digital surround sound. The following year, Toast of the Nation became the first live national music program broadcast from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and featured numerous local artists who hadn’t performed in their hometown since the disaster.

Toast of the Nation is produced by Becca Pulliam, who has spearheaded the program for the past 28 years, and also produces the weekly series JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater at WBGO Jazz 88 in Newark, NJ. Executive Producer is Josh Jackson.