Toast of the Nation: Donald Harrison Quintet at First Night Boston

The Donald Harrison Quintet plays a New Year’s Eve concert that will be broadcast worldwide on NPR’s “Toast of the Nation.” Eric Jackson, host of WGBH’s “Eric in the Evening,” will serve as the broadcast’s master of ceremonies. Alto saxophonist Harrison, a 1981 Berklee alumnus, is a New Orleans-born traditionalist, a modern jazz trendsetter, a former Jazz Messenger, a nurturer of young talent, a composer, and a bandleader. A kind of Crescent City Renaissance man, Harrison has performed with a musical who’s who that includes Art Blakey, Dr. John, Digable Planets, Lena Horne, and Miles Davis, to name just a few. An artist in residence at Tulane University, Harrison’s most recent recordings are This Is Jazz: Live at the Blue Note, with Billy Cobham and Ron Carter, and New Orleans Gumbo with Dr. John. Joining Harrison on New Year’s Eve will be his longtime band mates Detroit Brooks (guitar), Zaccai Curtis (piano), Max Moran ’10 (bass), and Joe Dyson ‘11 (drums).

New Year's Eve 2013 marks the tenth consecutive year that Berklee, 89.7 WGBH, and NPR have collaborated to kick-off the live jazz-based holiday celebration “Toast of the Nation.” Heard on more than 200 NPR affiliate stations, NPR Worldwide, NPRmusic.org, and Sirius XM Radio, “Toast of the Nation” begins in Boston and will move across the country, with the Wynton Marsalis Septet live from Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and performances for each time zone, from east to west, as the night moves on.