Who Is Gilles Peterson?

[JSngry]

Gilles Peterson is a name that keeps popping up whenever I see a jazz/dance music connection. Who the hell is he?

[Bluesman]

He's a British DJ who made his name with the BBC. Has produced a number of compilation CDs focused on acid jazz, modern jazz, Brazilian and African themes, sometimes all together.

Possesses a huge collection of rare LPs and from the pure jazz side his two CDs of British jazz titled "Impressed vol 1 & 2" are great.

[rostasi]

Gilles Peterson is a name that keeps popping up whenever I see a jazz/dance music connection. Who the hell is he?

Whatever you think about "Acid Jazz" you can attribute that to him.

Pretty much the originator of that trend beginning about '86.

[Bluesman]

From Wikipedia:

Radio and club dj Gilles Peterson is credited with coining the phrase Acid Jazz in the late 1980s in his BBC Radio 1 biography.

Gilles Peterson describes a time when he djd at Dingwalls club in Camden, north west London. He said "We put on this old 7-inch by Mickey and the Soul Generation which was a rare groove record with a mad rock guitar intro and no beat. I started vari-speeding it so it sounded all warped. Chris Bangs got on the microphone and said, 'If that was acid house, this is acid jazz'. That's how acid jazz started, just a joke!"

[sidewinder]

His name is also behind 2 volumes of this compilation by Universal UK, inspired by the rare nuggets in his vinyl mountain. As good a sampler of British 60s/early 70s modern jazz as you'll find anywhere.

Volume 3 is apparently due out soon.

His radio show throws up occasional gems from his ( ) rare jazz vinyl collection, in addition to the usual acid jazz/R&B fare.

His mid-80s radio shows (for Capitol Radio, London I think - before his BBC days) used to have some good stuff on them. His show was the forst time I ever heard selections from Don Wilkerson's Blue Notes.

Edited September 1, 2006 by sidewinder

[allblues]

He also has a BBC Radio 1 program, which you can listen to here.

[ghost of miles]

Jim, given that you're pursuing the house/jazz connection these days through Michiru & others, have you ever checked out Wax Poetics? Very good magazine devoted to funk/soul/hiphop/out jazz from the 1960s to the present... Brandon Burke is associated with it, I believe, and Brownie had some really cool photos in issue #15.

[JSngry]

I'll check it out. Thanks!

[sidewinder]

Gilles also (sort of) hosted the 'Jazz Britannia' weekend event at the Barbican about a year ago.

Funilly enough a flyer arrived today from my local arts centre mentioning a forthcoming show he is doing (DJing between shows I guess) -'Gilles Peterson Presents Seu Jorge & AfroReggae'. Anyone heard of these guys?

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Gilles also (sort of) hosted the 'Jazz Britannia' weekend event at the Barbican about a year ago.

Funilly enough a flyer arrived today from my local arts centre mentioning a forthcoming show he is doing (DJing between shows I guess) -'Gilles Peterson Presents Seu Jorge & AfroReggae'. Anyone heard of these guys?

not that I saw it but Seu Jorge was in that Bill Murray film "Life Aquatic" where he plays Bowie tunes. never heard them either.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Just spotted a few hours of podcasts from Gilles "in Brazil" on iTunes. just begun to listen ... essential and a must for JimR!

>Podcast Site<

(In association with Brahma beer ... some of the worst bullpiss you would ever want to drink - ack ptooey! )

Edited September 1, 2006 by Man with the Golden Arm

[rostasi]

Just spotted a few hours of podcasts from Gilles "in Brazil" on iTunes. just begun to listen ... essential and a must for JimR! >Podcast Site<

After they started asking personal questions, I "hung up" -

I'm wondering if it's just those Brazilian discs that he's put out -

hell, I can play that stuff for you and you won't even have to tell me how old you are!

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Just spotted a few hours of podcasts from Gilles "in Brazil" on iTunes. just begun to listen ... essential and a must for JimR! >Podcast Site<

After they started asking personal questions, I "hung up" -

I'm wondering if it's just those Brazilian discs that he's put out -

hell, I can play that stuff for you and you won't even have to tell me how old you are!

That Brahma site did not work for me - I'm listening now thru iTunes and they asked for nuthin. the first cast is Baile Funk ... not stuff from the 'in Brazil' disks but more of a travelogue, not so much musica but more of a schooling. Nice.

[Alexander Hawkins]

To add to what's been said so far, he's thought of as one of the top DJs around in this country. Idolised by a lot of the guys my age (25ish) who are into dance music with a little more to it. Has a real knack for introducing people to new music this way, I think.

His 'Worldwide' show, mentioned above, is often broadcast live from clubs around the country. I played a gig down the road from one of these a couple of months ago, and got a couple of comps into the club. The set started really brilliantly - lots of very inventive mixes of (on this occasion) big bands and (later) samba. Towards the end of the set, the music became markedly less interesting, and markedly more generic - but I guess he does have a mass-market to cater to as well...

As lots of people have said above, he's done an awful lot for the British jazz scene - championing a lot of important guys. It's great to have such a high profile guy so big on Joe Harriott and Stan Tracey. He seems to be really passionate about the music - not just going for the overtly 'hip' stuff, either.

I'm not terribly familiar with his African mixes, or his Brazilian things, but they're big sellers, and always pushed hard in the shops over here.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Miles of Gilles

Mr. Peterson continues refining his taste in jazz, samba, and goat cheese

by Kylen Campbell

January 14th, 2007 5:53 PM

photo: Adrian Boots

Gilles Peterson has achieved a modest sort of fame, but he prefers to keep the spotlight on the sounds he's been key in popularizing. Acid jazz. Drum'n'bass. Nu-jazz. Broken beat. All are prominently featured on his show "Worldwide" on BBC's Radio 1, a body of work that feeds the 50 mix CDs and compilations he's released since 1985—2000's INCredible Sound of Gilles Peterson is his most prominent work in the U.S., while more recent efforts like ...In Brazil and last year's Back in Brazil gave me the electricity I hadn't heard since. He's also a label boss, founding the groundbreaking imprints Acid Jazz and Talkin' Loud—you can thank Gilles (rhymes with smiles) for the Brand New Heavies, Roni Size and Reprazent, 4hero, and Nuyorican Soul, to name but a few. His new imprint, Brownswood—named for an old house of his now dedicated entirely to his vinyl—moves forward with an ear to what he helpfully describes as "just great music." (The label's first project, Brownswood Bubblers, spans house and modern jazz, with soul providing the glue.) When not on the air or running labels, he's behind the decks on a constant world tour, anchored by a club residency in London. With all that space to fill, his eclecticism is a necessity—he needs all the music he can get, so the possibilities only include hip-hop 'n' samba, bossa nova 'n' nu-jazz, funk 'n' soul, r&b 'n' d&b, house 'n' jazz, Afrobeat 'n' techno. And that's only the first hour of a set. This French-Swiss hybrid from South London is not called a tastemaker for nothing.

He slowed to human speed just before his New Year's set in Tokyo, fresh from vacation with his family in Lausanne, Switzerland. I could feel the whirlwind through the Skype connection as he described crate-digging—for cheese. He's busy, but life's clearly not so tough. "Not in Lausanne," Gilles says. "They have the number one cheese store in the region. It's deep over there." (He had it bad for a Corsican goat cheese, evidently.) It's the same with music—he's surrounded by exotic excellence he just "has" to sift through. "I'm constantly struggling as to who I am," he says. "And if it ever gets too easy, you're cheating the people in some way." This, after 20-plus years spinning records, launching careers, serving gems from Brazil and Africa, bridging the worlds of dance music and jazz . . . his dedication is 100 percent vital. It's enlivening. But of course, that's his gig: He means it.

"My mission is to give people the energy that I received from jazz and funk records when I first heard them," he explains. His own education came in clubs and ballrooms, electric and vibrant. Fueled by complementing soul/fusion/r&b scenes in early-'80s London, Gilles's special purpose and knack for what he calls connecting the dots between genres might have gained an anchor when fate played a three-part solo: "In one week, when I was about 21, I happened to meet Mark Murphy, Jalal from the Last Poets, and Wayne Shorter," Gilles recalls. He pauses. "In that week, a great deal of learning happened." If the next 21 years are evidence—a fresh DJ from a jazzbo scene blossoms into an impresario and curator with a worldwide radio show—what he learned was powerful. He plays in such a way that you can hear what he hears: the common thread in sometimes radically different things.

Gilles returns this week to the home of Shorter, Jalal, and Murphy to push that feeling on, DJing in addition to showcasing new talent on the Brownswood label. "I love to play New York," he says. "New York gives the love." Hopefully he finds some cheese here he likes as well.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I think Peterson was a bit earlier than the mid-eighties. That scene was definitely in heat in 1983 - when Pathe Marconi began to issue Blue Notes like Don Wilkerson's "Preach brother" - they were the first branch of EMI to decide that BN was commercial. Althugh I can't swear that I remember his name from that period, I'm sure he was one of the pioneers of the "Don Wilkerson is God" movement.

And the scene was as eclectic then as now - I first heard of the Truthettes - a female gospel quartet - through that network. In those days, the scene was championed by the magazine "Blues & Soul", which gave great reviews to Soul Jazz albums by the likes of Ponder and McDuff.

Trouble was, living in Cardiff, there was nothing like that scene here, so I never got a first hand taste of it.

MG

[JohnS]

ONe of Peterson's programmes was introduced with the line "JAZZ WITH ATTITUDE". Blue Note was featured heavily.

[sidewinder]

I think Peterson was a bit earlier than the mid-eighties. That scene was definitely in heat in 1983 - when Pathe Marconi began to issue Blue Notes like Don Wilkerson's "Preach brother" - they were the first branch of EMI to decide that BN was commercial. Althugh I can't swear that I remember his name from that period, I'm sure he was one of the pioneers of the "Don Wilkerson is God" movement.

And the scene was as eclectic then as now - I first heard of the Truthettes - a female gospel quartet - through that network. In those days, the scene was championed by the magazine "Blues & Soul", which gave great reviews to Soul Jazz albums by the likes of Ponder and McDuff.

Trouble was, living in Cardiff, there was nothing like that scene here, so I never got a first hand taste of it.

MG

I remember hearing Peterson's show on Capitol Radio around 1982/83 quite regularly. That was the first time I heard the Wilkerson Blue Note material - a track from 'Shoutin', I recall. This led to the 'Blue Bop' etc vinyl releases.

First heard tracks from Tina Brooks 'True Blue' on that show too. Very rarely heard in the UK before then, I guess..

Edited January 18, 2007 by sidewinder

[Noj]

These two compilations, available on emusic, are both pretty cool.

Dingwall's

Digs America

[Shannon Dickey]

Regarding Seu Jorge, the guitarist, seen in "The Life Aquatic", there is a domestic (US) CD of all the tracks (Bowie covers) that he did in the film. I can't remember the label, however it's fairly new.

DIG

[Simon Weil]

I think Peterson was a bit earlier than the mid-eighties....

I can't remember exactly, but I have the vague feeling that that's somehow right. My memory of him is of a teenage club DJ becoming immediately successful with a new mix of music, incorporating, I think hard bop and ?salsa (anyway something latin). And now terrible admission: My problem was I didn't like it.

Admittedly it was a dance thing, but there was something relentless about it. Anyway, the guy's gone from stength to strength; is obviously a talent - and is Not For Me.

GP is not a ballad person.

Simon Weil

[sidewinder]

Caught one of his 'DJ' shows in Cheltenham some years ago. Two enormous decks on the stage and the place packed with under-25 hip-hop groovers and assorted posers/chavs. All credit though that he featured Harry Beckett's Quintet with Chris Biscoe on stage for a set of mainly Mingus material before the vinyl action kicked off.

His Brit Jazz vinyl collection must be astonishing !

Edited January 20, 2007 by sidewinder

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Admittedly it was a dance thing, but there was something relentless about it. Anyway, the guy's gone from stength to strength; is obviously a talent - and is Not For Me.

GP is not a ballad person.

Simon Weil

That, I think is right and is a problem for me, too. I've always felt that slow dancing was terribly important and very nice, too. The few gigs I've been to where there was a guest DJ - and I think GP was the DJ at John Patton's gig in Brighton in the 90s, now I come to think of it - there has been no opportunity allowed for the kind of dancing where you both just stand there, swaying and feeling each other closely, listening, perhaps not closely to Stanley Turrentine's "Willow weep for me" or Willis Jackson's "Evergreen" or anything by Ben Webster.

I think something wonderful is lost by the concentration on the fast and funky.

MG

Edited January 20, 2007 by The Magnificent Goldberg

[Simon Weil]

Admittedly it was a dance thing, but there was something relentless about it. Anyway, the guy's gone from stength to strength; is obviously a talent - and is Not For Me.

GP is not a ballad person.

Simon Weil

That, I think is right and is a problem for me, too. I've always felt that slow dancing was terribly important and very nice, too. The few gigs I've been to where there was a guest DJ - and I think GP was the DJ at John Patton's gig in Brighton in the 90s, now I come to think of it - there has been no opportunity allowed for the kind of dancing where you both just stand there, swaying and feeling each other closely, listening, perhaps not closely to Stanley Turrentine's "Willow weep for me" or Willis Jackson's "Evergreen" or anything by Ben Webster.

Well, I'm more of a hippyish throw-myself-around-in-circles kind of dancer (maybe at 53 I should give this up) but...Yup...Ike Quebec, Blue and Sentimental is the one in my head.

I think something wonderful is lost by the concentration on the fast and funky.

MG

The poetry in life?

Simon Weil

[JSngry]

It's only lost if you can't find it, and there's plenty of other places to find it.

Life is not one-stop shopping...