Morning Brew-Classic Jazz.com

MorningBrew-ClassicJazz.com is a blog about Morning Brew – Classic Jazz Edition programmed and hosted by DJ Craig Williams and heard every Thursday morning from 5:00 to 8:00 a.m. on your community supported, Jazz and Justice radio station, WPFW at 89.3 FM, broadcasting with 50,000 watts to the District, Maryland, Virginia and beyond. WPFW also streams live on the internet at http://www.wpfwfm.org. Additionally, music programs, such as Morning Brew, are archived for two weeks for those who are late-risers or live farther to the west http://www.wpfwfm.org/radio/programming/archived-shows.

The primary purpose of this blog is to inform you, our listeners, about upcoming programming and special events. It will also post playlists from past shows starting with the Thursday, 7 November 2019 program. Additional posts will cover upcoming area jazz concerts, club dates, and special events, as well as occasional reviews, thereof. Some posts will cover new album releases and earlier recordings recently acquired by the programmer/host. Readers will also find useful links throughout the menus and blog posts. For shorter updates about Morning Brew – Classic Jazz Edition, please see our Twitter feed http://twitter.com/morningbrew_CJE

WPFW

WPFW is the Washington, DC-based sister station of the Pacifica Foundation, http://www.pacifica.org. The Pacifica Foundation was born in the late 1940’s out of the peace movement surrounding World War II. Lewis Hill, a conscientious objector and Washington, D.C. newsman, was fired from his mainstream reporting job when he refused to misrepresent the facts. This was a time when a listener-sponsored radio station had never been implemented. Despite many doubts about viability, Pacifica was born and in 1949 KPFA went on the air from Berkeley, California. The Pacifica mission statement can be found here: http://www.pacifica.org/about_mission.php

WPFW began in 1977, in a very modest facility – a single room, divided into four segments. One section served as the on-air studio, the others were the administrative office, newsroom, and a place for volunteers to prepare their programs. Some 40 years later, support from WPFW listeners has enabled the station to have modern facilities in the heart of DC. From the beginning, WPFW has been the voice for progressive news, public affairs, and music programming in the Washington metropolitan area. WPFW continues to challenge the norm in public media, passionately serving the under-served and the marginalized in our community.  WPFW remains free of corporate underwriting and influence, beholden only to our listeners.  Through volunteerism, WPFW provides members of our community the opportunity to learn broadcasting and to gain a better understanding of the global community in which we live. The WPFW mission statement can be found here: http://www.wpfwfm.org/radio/about-us/our-mission.

Morning Brew

Morning Brew is a horizontal program strip aired every weekday morning from 5:00 AM until 8:00 AM on WPFW 89.3 FM. The five programs are Jazz Notes Edition with host Ellen Carter on Mondays, Yardbird Sweets Edition with host Askia Muhammad on Tuesdays, Beyond Borders Edition with host Katea Stitt on Wednesdays, Classic Jazz Edition with host Craig Williams on Thursdays, and Candy Shannon with Host Candy Shannon on Fridays. While primarily a music strip, Morning Brew hosts/programmers often insert public affairs programming as they deem appropriate. There are two 5 minute news brakes at 5 minutes to 6:00 and 7:00, as well as Union City Radio at 7:15 for approximately 3 minutes, hosted by Chris Garlock, http://aflcio.org/author/chris-garlock. Morning Brew remains one of the only, if not the only music program broadcast from the DMV during the weekday, a.m. drive time.

Morning Brew – Classic Jazz Edition

Morning Brew – Classic Jazz Edition was founded by former programmer/host Jim Dombouski, to whom we all owe a great deal of thanks and gratitude. While Morning Brew – Classic Jazz Edition still starts out every week with a version of John Coltrane playing Rodgers’s and Hammerstein’s My Favorite Things http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWG2dsXV5HI, the musical direction of the program has evolved under Craig Williams’s tutelage. As the name implies, much of the programming involves the presentation of mainstream jazz from bebop to recent releases in the pantheon of straight-ahead jazz sub-genres. However, as appropriate with the theme of themes of any given show, offerings can move farther afield to include the genres of avante-garde, blues, reggae, soul, r&b, gospel, folk, world and even, country and European-based classical. The Classic Jazz Edition does not shy away from presenting important social issues, particularly those of gun control and the destructive actions of the 45th President.

Craig Williams

Programmer, host and DJ, Craig Williams is an architect winding down a 40-plus-year career at David M. Schwarz Architects in Washington, DC, http://www.dmsas.com. He has been blessed to work on great projects with excellent colleagues. He has also had many equally great clients throughout the country. One of the things he most appreciates about being an architect is learning through his work about the businesses, institutions and pursuits which personally interest him – museums & galleries, wineries, performing arts, community building and historic preservation, to name several.

Outside of the office, he spends time with his wife Kim and pursues his interests in photography, cooking & wine, whiskey, vintage Italian cars, vacuum tube audio, woodworking and other time-consuming hobbies.  In his remaining spare time, he can be heard on WPFW 89.3FM as a jazz DJ, and can also be found volunteering for the Humane Rescue Alliance, http://www.humanerescuealliance.org, where Kim and he were recently adopted by Stripe, a lovable but crazy Pit Mix pooch. Previously, they raised two amazing Dalmatians from puppy-hood to mature adult dogs, Sparkie and Lucky.

While still in architecture school, Craig started listening to WPFW during its first months on the air in the spring of 1977. After commencing full-time employment, he became a listener-member, and over the decades, he grew into a major supporter of the station. During a management crisis in the early 2010’s, Craig joined a large group of concerned members and supporters to help save the station. From there, he went on to volunteer in several capacities.

In the summer of 2016 his friend, radio-sister, and host of Sunday Kind of Love (Sundays noon to 2:00 pm), Miyuki Williams, trained him to work the board and perform the other duties of hosting a program. Craig’s live, solo, on-air broadcasting started when substituting for Robyn Holden’s Robyn’s Place on Friday evening 9 December 2015. After a year sitting in for many programmers throughout the program grid at all hours of the day and night, Craig began filling in for Jim Dombrouski on the Classic Jazz Edition of Morning Brew, as Jim faced a series of medical challenges. Eventually, Craig assumed the programming and hosting responsibilities of the Classic Jazz Edition.

Donate Now

Look for the donate now button on the WPFWFM.org homepage

WPFW is a 100% listener-supported, non-profit radio station. The station does not sell advertisements, does not accept corporate underwriting and is not associated with a university or large institution. It relies on listener support for its actual survival. If you listen and like what you hear, please consider becoming a member by donating during one of our pledge drives, or better yet, pledge on-line today, https://pledge.wpfwfm.org/index.php. In Step 1, use the drop-down menu to select Morning Brew & Union City Radio – Classic Jazz Edition. Thank you in advance.