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WBGO Launches New Program, the Checkout, to Air Tuesdays at 6:30PM

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ONE HOUR MAGAZINE FORMAT WILL FOCUS ON NEW MUSIC
AND INAUGURATE NEW CONTENT RICH WEBSITE

The Checkout, which makes its debut on Tuesday, April 7 at 6:30pm, will be the first new produced program on the WBGO airwaves since JazzSet began 17 years ago.

Josh Jackson, host of The Checkout, first began his life in radio in New Orleans, then landed a temporary production assistant job at American Routes, and followed with public radio boot camp at Murray Street Productions in New York. Josh still believes that radio is a legitimate career path, and no one has the heart to tell him otherwise.

Josh joined the WBGO team in 2001 and is currently the station’ Special Projects Producer, blogger-in-chief and an unparalleled enthusiast for modern expressions in jazz. He has been responsible for new media projects such as Living With Music, an online multimedia riff about jazz, and the multi-media partnership between WBGO and NPR, Live at the Village Vanguard, a monthly concert series that includes live audio and video streaming via the web, live radio broadcast, plus an interactive blog where fans of the music interact with one another. The Vanguard series, along with its free podcasts, has become such a sensation, that it was a focal point in the current JazzTimes cover story on Ravi Coltrane, who recently appeared on the program.

As Josh was producing award-winning documentaries and more than 250 live concert recordings at WBGO, an idea for a show highlighting new music came to him. “I wanted to put this content we were recording in context, to connect the dots between artists’ upcoming performances in the area, their new releases, and what they’re listening to.”

The Checkout will be a one-hour magazine format, also available as a podcast, that will feature what’s new in the New York jazz scene. The New York Times’ Ben Ratliff will occasionally sit down with Josh to discuss new releases, reissues, and newly discovered or unearthed music.

A new website will also launch on April 7, Josh’s strong relationship with many musicians will enable the site to have on-demand content such as Featured New Music - single tracks from new releases that day - and Studio Sessions, which are recorded in the WBGO performance studio. But Josh Jackson will certainly not be contained to the WBGO offices in Newark, but rather, he will be recording interviews and experiences on location throughout the New York area to collect the pieces of The Checkout.

While The Checkout is for all WBGO listeners, Program Director, Thurston Briscoe, hopes that “the in depth magazine style focusing on new music, a fresh approach for WBGO original programming, will attract new listeners and the young of spirit.”

WBGO is celebrating Jazz Appreciation Month in April, which is also the station’s 30th anniversary. The Checkout launch on April 7, which replaces the no longer available Jazz Profiles, is a highlight of this celebration. The first month of shows have been confirmed, and will feature interviews with Tom Harrell, Omar Sosa, Sangam – Sakir Hussein, Charles Lloyd, Chick Corea and John McLaughlin, as well as studio sessions with Claudia Acuna and Marco Benevento, a new release from Allen Toussaint’s Bright Mississippi band, and a playlist from Branford Marsalis.

The first five broadcasts/podcasts of The Checkout are as follows:

April 7th
Interview with Tom Harrell, who WBGO and NPR will present on Live at the Village Vanguard the following night.
Interview with Omar Sosa, discussing his new release, Across the Divide, and current run at the Blue Note this week.
Interview with saxophonist Mark Turner about his new release with Fly, Sky & Country; Fly performs at the Jazz Standard starting April 9th.



April 14th
Studio session with Claudia Acuna, who just released En Este Momento, and is playing Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola.
Studio session with Marco Benevento, who just released Me Not Me, and is playing in New Orleans throughout JazzFest.
Interview with Jon Comerford, producer of the documentary Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense, which premieres April 15 in the Allen Room, Jazz at Lincoln Center.



April 21st
Interview and performance from Dori Caymmi, who plays the BossaBrazil Festival at Birdland.
Interview with Fred Hersch about The Pocket Orchestra, on the day the release of their live record.
Allen Toussaint gives us a tour of New Orleans music, and we play The Bright Mississippi on its release date.



April 28th
Interview with Sangam - Zakir Hussein, Charles Lloyd, and Eric Harland - before they play Carnegie Hall/Stern
Interview with Chick Corea and John McLaughlin; their Five Peace Band tour record release is scheduled for April 28.



May 5th
Exclusive preview of Infernal Machines, the new and amazing big band record from young composer Darcy James Argue.
Branford Marsalis makes a playlist, and talks about his new record, Metamorphosen; his quartet plays the Jazz Standard the week of May 5.
Studio session with guitarist Julian Lage; Julian and band play Joe's Pub to celebrate the debut release, Sounding Point.



Check out The Checkout, Tuesdays at 6:30pm, beginning April 7, on
WBGO – The Source for Jazz (88.3FM and www.WBGO.org).



WBGO/Jazz88.3FM serves the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area with mainstream jazz, blues, and award-winning news and public affairs programming. Non- commercial WBGO is supported by nearly 17,000 annual members and has over 400,000 weekly broadcast listeners. WBGO also streams its broadcast signal to audiences worldwide. Jazz88 was named the “Jazz Station of the Year” by the Gavin Report and is also the recipient of the Blues Foundation’s “Keeping the Blues Alive Award” for Achievement in Non-Commercial Radio. WBGO is a publicly-supported, cultural institution that champions jazz, an American art form, and presents news to a worldwide audience through radio, other technologies and events.

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