Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
Rhonda Hamilton, WBGO-FM announcer, will host this year’s Toast of the Nation New Year’s celebration, live from the new Yoshi’s in San Francisco. Hamilton and Dr. Billy Taylor started Toast of the Nation in 1979 ushering in the new year with live performances in jazz in a cross-country holiday party.
This year’s show will begin with pianist Danilo Perez and his big band kicking things off at Boston’s Berklee College of Music at 8 p.m. EST. The broadcast then travels to Amsterdam at 9 p.m. before returning for Patti Austin singing “A Gershwin New Year’s Eve” at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Trio da Paz and pianist Kenny Barron will infuse a Brazilian flavor to the broadcast from the Jazz Standard in New York at 11 p.m. Starting at 12:15 a.m., Nachito Herrera and the Steele Family Singers will present a tribute to Earth, Wind & Fire at the Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant in Minneapolis. Denver’s KUVO-FM picks-up the toast an hour later with the Convergence sextet at the Dazzle Restaurant and Lounge. The toast concludes with the Count Basie Orchestra with Ledisi celebrating the first New Year’s Eve at Yoshi’s in San Francisco.
The entire show will air on wbgo.org and NPR, including the American Forces Network.
More info: wgbo.org
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
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