Gilles Peterson

Defected, Radio 1,

2008.01.23 ::: Words by Paul Bradshaw

Throughout 2007, Radio One ‘Worldwide’ DJ Gilles Peterson has continued to criss-cross the planet, hopping from continent to continent, playing dozens of mind expanding club and festival sessions. From London to Berlin from Singapore to Dubai from Sao Paulo to LA from NYC to Tokyo, he has a legion of followers who adhere to his eclectic vision which joins the dots between his soul boy heritage, his deep knowledge and passion for jazz and today’s boundary breaking nu-skool .

Along with a consistent flow of compilation albums, like the excellent ‘Gilles Peterson In The House’ set on Defected or his equally deep ‘Gilles Person Digs America II’ for California’s Ubiquity records, he is responsible a wave of new music from his own independent Brownswood imprint. Since it was launched in 2006 Brownswood has released two albums of “Bubblers” and a brace of diverse album sets from the Heritage Orchestra, multi talented Ben Westbeech, two NYC based artists - jazz singer Jose James and acclaimed pianist Elan Mehler – and the blistering Tokyo punk-jazz combo Soil & “Pimp” Sessions. Brownswood has also dropped a small stack of remixes that enlist the talents of Cobblestone Jazz, IG Culture, Jazzanova, MJ Cole, Domu, Osunlade, Dap Kings, Spiritual South, Zed Bias and Daisuke Tanabe amongst others.

Live and direct, the summer of 2007 witnessed a highly successful Brownswood European Tour. That was followed by Soil & “Pimp” Sessions blowing up on Laters with Jools Holland and a Soil & “Pimp” meets Jamie Callum collaboration at the prestigious Electric Proms at the Roundhouse. Another, major event in this year’s calendar was Brownswood’s Heritage Orchestra sharing the bill with the Cinematic Orchestra at their sold-out Royal Albert Hall concert.

In Japan, Gilles continues hosts a regular radio show on the influential J Wave, while here in the UK his weekly Radio One Worldwide show continues to blaze a radical trail. For proof of that, seek out his live in the studio encounter with Detroit’s elusive Kenny Dixon Jnr aka Moodymann. That was a first!

January 2008 will see Gilles, once more, hosting his prestigious Radio One sponsored Worldwide Awards in London town. As ever one can expect a seriously expansive line-up of live and dj talent. However, for now, that line up is Top Secret.

Gilles Peterson is heavily committed to curating major innovative events like the acclaimed Jazz Britannia at the Barbican and his own longstanding night at the Montreux Jazz Festival. One of his most recent ventures was the enticing, two day long, Worldwide Festival at Sete, in the south of France.

Since the Eighties and those ‘Jazz Juice’ albums, Gilles Peterson has notched up over 50 mix CDs/compilations. Always happy to go diggin’ into his unrepentently out-of-hand record collection, Gilles delivered the marvelous ‘Impressed’ compilations of innovative and deep, swinging Sixties UK jazz in 2005 . He followed that with the much publicised and televised concerts at London’s Barbican Centre and has since then raided the vaults of the universally celebrated Impulse records to conjure up yet another classic selection of music.

Giving us a chance to re-assess DJ Gilles Peterson’s no less eventful career as a label boss and A&R man, Universal have just re-lissued a diverse collection of albums from the Talkin’ Loud catalogue. Over a five year period spanning the late Eighties and early Nineties, he and fellow DJ Patrick Forge ran their spiritually charged, musically explosive and now legendary Sunday afternoon session at Dingwalls in Camden Lock – Talking Loud & Saying Something. It was in 1989 that Gilles masterminded a new label for Polygram called Talkin’ Loud. He had already conspired with Eddie Piller to set up Acid Jazz records – their response to the tidal wave of acid house – and the vision for Talkin’ Loud was a label that worked with young producers and musicians who were destined to be the best of their generation.

Small but unquestionably successful, the label notched up an incredible five Mercury nominations including the Mercury Award winning ‘New Forms’ album from Roni Size & Reprazent. Quite an achievement but one that is not that surprising when one considers that the label roster included 4 Hero, Incognito, Nu Yorican Soul, Carl Craig’s Innerzone Orchestra, The Roots, Reprazent, DJ Krust, UFO, Young Disciples, Galliano, Omar and Marxman amongst others.

Since he ran a pirate radio station out of his back garden shed in south London during his teens Gilles Peterson has devoted his life to promoting the jazz spirit and it’s contemporary urban manifestations around the world. As a DJ he initially honed his skills and deep knowledge in the tough, jazz dance atmosphere of the Electric Ballroom, a club that thrived in the musical and lyrical shadows thrown by emerging electro funk and hip hop. He boldly expanded his influence by taking on the Monday nights at Soho’s bohemian Wag Club and maintained his "soul boy" links through the Special Branch, a club with a DJ roster that included Pete Tong, Nicky Holloway, Bob Jones, Chris Bangs and Danny Rampling. It was Talkin’ Loud & Saying Something at Dingwalls that provided the launch pad for world domination, it was a club that inspired a generation of DJs from UFO in Tokyo to Rainer Truby in the Black Forest to Nicola Conte in Bari, Italy to Giant Step’s Jonathan Rudnick and Maurice Bernstein in New York City.

Gilles Peterson’s experiences as a DJ for Radio One, KISS FM, Jazz FM (from which he was "sacked for playing peace jazz"), Radio London and those classic pirate stations like Invicta and K-Jazz continues to fuel a serious passion for broadcasting. Anyone who has sat in on a live’n’direct Worldwide broadcasts will testify that an alignment of pent up energy, deep knowledge and commitment to new music makes him capable of uniting totally unique diverse musical forces to create a deeply soulful, positive and ever expansive vibe.

Early 2008 will see the release of Gllles Peterson’s ‘in The House’ selection on Defected records and Paul Bradshaw talks to the globally renown eclectic club and radio dj about the pain, the passion and leather pegs!

“I know it sounds like a cliché but it’s all about the passion… the key ingredient is passion. Look, we’re here, listening to Jon Lucien’s ‘Mi Vida’ and I’m loving it. I’m not over it and I simply can’t fake it!” declares a charming but animated Gilles Peterson.

Imbued with a boyish swagger and an irrepressible energy Gilles is a goldmine of musical knowledge and when Geraldine Hunt’s ‘’Can’t Fake That Feeling’ fills the room it seems to vindicate his point of view.

“This is a TUNE, a mighty vocal. There’s nothing better than seeing the ladies shake to this one!”
The Radio 1 DJ and boss of Brownswood Records, is in the midst of a photo shoot in a small industrial flat conversion just off the City Road and spitting distance from Hoxton Square. The disc in the hi fi is a test press of his latest compilation for Defected and it’s simply entitled ‘Gilles Peterson In The House’. Interestingly it illuminates another side of Peterson’s eclectic outlook and why his roots in soul, funk, disco and fusion have ensured him a place in the higher echelons of global DJ culture.

“I know all the dj’s… on all the scenes!” he says laughing. And he’s not joking. He has notched up millions of air miles and inevitably they all meet up as they criss cross the globe spinning records or doing whatever they do with those lap tops. Plus, his role the founder of Acid Jazz and as the head honcho of Talkin’ Loud records and his own Brownswood label has led him to work with and commission music from all the dons.

He’s good friends with Laurent Garnier – “the only DJ who can join the dots between myself, DJ Marky and Carl Cox” – and, of course with Carl Cox himself. He and Carl go way back to pre rave days and following his most recent annual guest spot with Carl at Space in Ibiza he feels that musically they definitely have a lot in common.

However, he still gets those cold shivers as he recalls the first time he played at Space.

“It was ten years ago. That was the most scared I’ve ever been as a DJ. I was close to crying when I went on. There were a couple of thousand Europeans who’d been going ballistic to the hardest techno. It was extreme. Carl had peaked it playing the outer limits of dance music and I had to follow him, on the Terrace, live on Radio 1, and make it feel like it was a smooth transition! I had to drop from 136 to 116 bpms… do you know what that’s like? The people were confused to the point of horror when I played my first tune but I survived and as heavy as the experience was it provided me with yet another valuable dj lesson.

“I’ve done Space every year since then and this year Carl and I have come closer to each other, sharing artists on our play lists and appreciating each other more. I’m definitely feeling the swing and funk in his sets. Also his audience is more likely to understand me now than ten years ago.”

Gilles Peterson is an outernationalist. He lives and works in close proximity to his beloved Arsenal in North London and though his roots are as a south London soul boy, he is also a fluent French speaker with family in both France and Switzerland. However, his second home is Japan. He’s been working there since the Eighties and has been a major force in promoting and cultivating the nu-jazz scene. He has a weekly radio show on the hugely influential J Wave, one of his favourite clubs is Yellow in Tokyo, he has signed punked-out jazzers Soil &”Pimp” Sessions to his Brownswood imprint and he tours there three times a year.

“I do enjoy shopping in Japan. I buy all my suits and shirts there. I’ve got definite tastes… Viz Vim for their shoes, Undercover for shirts. I’m also feeling Cool Struttin’ in Aoyama. I loved the couple who used to make the suits for UFO.” says Peterson and adds, “I never feel comfortable shopping here, in London. I only do bookshops, the record shops… the ones that are left!... and wine shops. I like the labels on the bottles… maybe it’s the collector in me.”

Quirky. That’s how I would describe Gilles Peterson and as he describes his youth you realise why.

“On a recent drive to Manchester with my MC, Earl Zinger… he’s also one half of 2 Banks of 4… we were listening to the ‘In The House’ selection,“ say Peterson. “Zinger’s feeling was, ‘That’s your history… right there.’ And I suppose it is.

“I started with disco not quite realising I was being engulfed in future classics at an early age. ‘Jingo’ by Candido, Idris Muhammed’s ‘Could Heaven Be Like This’, Silk’s ‘Space Bass… kind of disco meets jazz. That was my soul boy days: Caister, Goldmine, Cat’s Whiskers, Bogarts. Then there was Prelude records, Sharon Redd’s ‘Can You Handle It, Strikers’ ‘Body Music’… D Train and those Francois K productions.

“As a teenager I used to play a gay club in Croydon called Doctor Crippens on Sundays. I couldn’t tell my mum. Carol Jiani’s ’Hit & Run Lover’ was big but I hated it. Back then I loved all those Cerrone and Change tracks and they still sound really good to me.. In those days it was pre computers and programmed drums, so it was down to really good live drummers, like on Taste Of Honey’s ‘Boogie Oogie Oogie’ . The Mizell Brothers produced that. Earth Wind & Fire, that was my house music, that’s when I grew up musically and found myself wearing leather pegs from Jones in the Kings Road, pods from a little shop in Kingston and jazz funk t-shirts that I picked up at the weekenders.

“I used to go to the Venue in Victoria and the Rainbow in Finsbury Park and hear the cream of Brit Funk. Shakatak, Hi Tension, Cache, Touchdown, UK Players… I used to love them… Freeze. I caught Luther Vandross at the Dominion on the corner of Tottenham Court Road… it was down to him and the drummer. I played ‘Never Too Much’ last Saturday in Kings Cross at the end of the session, around 5am. People still love it.

“On the “boogie” front Paul ‘Trouble’ Anderson’ is very important to me. He was doing the Electric Ballroom with George Power when I was doing the Jazz Room upstairs. The ballroom was a cross between Crackers and a more modernist electro vibe comin’ in via Whodini and Nucleus. Respect is also due to Frankie Foncett, Noel Watson and, of course Norman Jay. All those guys are important.”

So, that brings us to 1987 and the dawn of Acid House. Rare Groove ruled in London town but it was about to be eclipsed.

“It was radical!” exclaims Peterson. “ But I was sceptical. We were doing our thing. Talking Loud & Saying Something at Dingwalls was kicking off. I wasn’t convinced. Maybe it was the whole association with the drugs but when I saw Michael Knot, a member of IDJ, a brilliant jazz dancer, dancing to ‘Acid Trax’ by Phuture in a dark room at the back of a pub in Teddington I changed my mind and started including it into my sets. I went to few Boys Own parties and loved it. Also, we… Bro Marco and Rob G… had a room at Babylon, Steve Swindell’s club at Heaven. Downstairs, it was Colin Favor playing early electronic techno and next door in the Future Bar was Danny Rampling and Paul Oakenfold. On a Thursday night, for two years, you couldn’t avoid the craziness that was Babylon.”

Twenty years on, the tunes that Gilles Peterson has included in his Defected selection never fail to stand up to the tests of time and reflect both passion and an ability to uplift the spirit.

“With compilations… I must be the world record holder!” he says shaking his head. “The record collectors must hate me… ‘Oh no! Not another Peterson compilation!

“Basically, it’s like the alphabet.’ says Gilles. ”Jazz… black music got into my soul and it gave me the foundation. I got a good education because I was immersed in the culture here… pirate radio, warehouse parties, carnival, sound system… there was always a little bit of danger. I’ve had great, long-standing clubs at the Wag, Fridge, Fez, Bar Rumba, Dingwalls… Cargo. I’ve always enjoyed my own clubs but I’m also into those events or venues where I’m going to learn. Playing with Carl, Laurent or Theo Parrish… you need to put yourself outside you comfort zone.
“I’ve had great human satisfaction from what I do. I’ve met all these amazing people and then to be able to help them is as good as being a priest or a doctor. When artists or musicians like Steve Reid or Terry Callier come to London they call me through friendship and that’s great.”

“I suppose I’m a kind of cult famous person,” he continues. ”I’m rarely recognised but there are people who admire me for what I do and that motivates me. I get the best of both worlds. It is odd at times. I was at the Roundhouse for the Verve and this guy, who I had never met before, came up to me and said, ‘Hi Gilles.’ and we shook hands and talked and he turned out to be James Purnell – the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

“I’m always surprised when that happens. But I have dj’d for millions of people. I’ve been on the radio for over 25 years. People do look at me and maybe they do recognise me but sometimes I just think, ‘What are you looking at!?”

::: Related Links

::: www.gillespetersonworldwide.com

::: www.myspace.com/gillespeterson

::: www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/gillespeterson

::: www.defected.com