Gilles Peterson

Just before the time of writing this, Gilles Peterson proudly announced his fifty-five thousandth record played on BBC Radio. Quite the achievement, but only the tip of the iceberg for a man with a Stakhanovite work ethic powered by the constant pursuit of delight. Peterson’s shows on various BBC channels over 40 years are in addition to the pirate radio where he cut his teeth, weekly appearances on his own globally syndicated Worldwide FM, relentless international touring as a club DJ including all kinds of residencies, and never-ending work as a curator of records, record labels, shows and festivals. 

That 55,000th record? Mirage’s 1977 Canadian cover version of the Blackbyrds jazz-funk classic “Happy Music.” In some senses the epitome of a “Gilles Peterson record,” and yet so were the Brazilian and Thai psychedelic records he played in the same show, and so are the global bass music, footworking, dub and house records he’s just as likely to play at any given moment. Because from the very minute he started his mission to share his crate-digging adventures, Peterson has been an evangelist for both the greatest jazz and jazz-adjacent music from throughout history and across the planet, and all of its most bleeding edge of offspring, always with a sense that they all belong together: “joining the dots” to use one of his favourite phrases. 

A full rundown of his work would fill books – but even a glance across the records he’s compiled or signed to his labels will give you a sense of the enormity, but also the cohesion. Those labels – Talkin’ Loud through the 1990s, then Brownswood from 2006 onwards – are thoroughly established as cornerstones of modern music. With the former, under the aegis of Polygram, he proudly used the resources of a major label to use current dance forms to smuggle deep-rooted, “grown-folks” musicianship to mass audiences. Whether it was hip hop / R&B (The Young Disciples), house (Masters At Work’s Nuyorican Soul project), drum’n’bass (4Hero, Roni Size Reprazent) or UK Garage (MJ Cole), the results created enduring classic records that joined those dots across generations. 

Brownswood is probably best known lately for showcasing the 21st century young British jazz generation – Shabaka Hutchings, Yussef Dayes, Joe Armon-Jones, Kokoroko, Emma-Jean Thackray – especially via the 2019 recorded-over-three-days compilation We Out Here (which also gave Peterson’s UK festival its name). But as an independent it has been able to bounce hither and thither, taking in all kinds of electronic music, Kenyan funk, UK dubstep with Cuban and Peruvian musicians, gatherings of talent from Melbourne and across South Africa, as well as Peterson’s old friends, associates and Talkin’ Loud staples, Galliano, and an ongoing set of compilations promoting youth talent mentored in the Brownswood Bubblers project. 

And then there’s the compilations done outside of his own labels. It’s scarcely plausible that someone could compile an album for London’s foundational superclub Ministry of Sound, mix another for house haven Defected, and also make a mix album – with accompanying boxes of 7” singles – from the catalogue of Sun Ra. But then on top of that there’s the collections of bang up to the minute music from scenes Peterson is intimately involved with in Brazil, Cuba, Japan and who knows where else, impeccably diverse remix albums for individual artists, picks for globally important labels old (Impulse) and new (International Anthem) and on… and on…. and on.

Joe Muggs