WFCR FM, NPR News and Music for Western New England, is pleased to announce a live opening night broadcast from the Tanglewood Jazz Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts. Friday August 31, 2007. The concert features performances by South African trumpeter Hugh Masakela and the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band. The music begins at 8 p.m. from Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, concluding at 11:00 p.m.

Hugh Masakela has had a wide ranging musical career, one steeped in both American jazz and pop, and styles native to South Africa, where he was born in 1939. Masakela is best known for his hit recording, "Grazin' in the Grass" and he appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland album.

Poncho Sanchez leads a world-renowned Latin jazz ensemble. The Texas-born conga player, who won a Latin Jazz Grammy in l999, has released numerous recordings on the Concord Picante label; his most recent, Raise Your Hand, features Booker T and the MG's, Eddie Floyd and Maceo Parker. Sanchez has played with many jazz greats, including Freddie Hubbard, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria and Ray Charles.

The Tanglewood broadcast is being co-produced by WGBH Radio Boston and WBGO in Newark, New Jersey. The concert will be co-hosted by WGBH's Steve Schwartz and WBGO's Rhonda Hamilton.

Tom Reney, host of WFCR's "Jazz a la Mode" will serve as the emcee for the Tanglewood Jazz Festival on Saturday, September 1. Reney will introduce the Festival's headliner, Kurt Elling, at 8pm at Ozawa Hall. Elling has won the Downbeat Critics Award for Male Vocalist of the Year for eight consecutive years and he's been nominated for six Grammy awards.

Reney will also introduce a performance by the 15 year-old saxophonist Grace Kelly, who appears at the Tanglewood Jazz Cafe at 6:30 p.m. on September 1. Kelly, a native of Brookline, Massachusetts, is a recipient of the ASCAP Foundation 2007 Young Jazz Composers Award for her recording, "Every Road I walked.”