NJ Radio Host, Jazz Ambassador Celebrates 25th Year On The Air

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — When a musician lands on Monifa Brown’s playlist, their art is in safe hands. After all, the Montclair resident has been helming one of the East Coast’s most enduring radio jazz programs for more than a quarter of a century.

Brown, the long-running host of “Saturday Afternoon Jazz” on WBGO/88.3 FM, is getting ready to mark a special milestone: her 25th year on the air.

The four-hour weekly program currently airs from 2 to 6 p.m. on the Newark-based public radio station. It also airs worldwide online at wbgo.org. Learn more about the show and listen to past programs here.

Brown said she plans to hold a special show celebrating her 25 years on the air on Saturday, May 22. It will feature 25 of her favorite recordings that she’s encountered over her career.

“I was the youngest regular on-air host when I started back in 1996, and now have literally spent half of my life on the air at WBGO,” Brown told Patch.

“It is truly a labor of love that started when I used to listen to the station as a kid growing up in Brooklyn,” she remembered. “My parents, who used to take me to all the legendary jazz clubs from The Village Vanguard and The Village Gate to Sweet Basil, literally poured their love of the music into me.”

Since those days, she’s had a chance to work with some of the genre’s most iconic voices.

Some of her favorite moments have included hosting a monthly performance/interview series in Manhattan, presenting such luminaries as bassist Ron Carter, drummer Roy Haynes and trumpeter Terence Blanchard, Brown recalled.

Other career highlights include serving as associate producer of WBGO’s “JazzSet” with the Grammy Award-winning Branford Marsalis, and interviewing “saxophone colossus,” Sonny Rollins.

And then there’s the time that pianist/composer George Cables wrote a song on her behalf in 2016, which he called “The Mystery Of Monifa Brown.”

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In addition to radio, Brown is a seasoned publicist who has worked on behalf of artists and record labels for over two decades, including jazz icons as Roy Haynes, Freddie Hubbard, Marian McPartland, Terence Blanchard, Joe Lovano and Dianne Reeves. She’s also led campaigns for renowned R&B, world music and reggae artists such as Deniece Williams, Jody Watley, Angie Stone, Meshell Ndegeocello, Soweto Gospel Choir, Third World, Inner Circle and Mint Condition.

But even after all these years, Brown, a classically trained violinist and vocalist herself, is still finding ways to keep things fresh for her audience.

“This year I started a new feature on my show called ‘Keep the Faith,’” Brown said. “The premise is to explore the connection between an artist's music and their faith. It’s my belief that no matter what our own individual faiths are, we are all united in the humanity that each artist offers us through their artistic expression.”

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