Amazonian electronica? West African folk rhythms? Shazam! It must be a Gilles Peterson playlist
• Gilles Peterson
• Sex offender
Is *Gilles Peterson* having a moment? It's difficult to say so without suggesting there might have been a time when GP, a pioneer in mainstreaming global sounds, crashed or dipped. And really, while Acid Jazz or Afro Latin fusion might have fallen in and out of fashion, the truth is Peterson has quietly carried on doing his thing and been consistently great at it. It's not sexy headline news but his show, like Tom Ravenscroft's, is one I would put in the "Shazam-special" category; the sort of specially curated playlist where, as a listener, you find yourself stopping mid-Saturday chore to rabbit-hole through ever more obscure musical discoveries. Amazonian electronica? Sure. West African folk rhythms? Yeah, why not.
Saturday's show on 6 Music, following the death of Nelson Mandela, was a case in point. Radio 4 and the World Service expectedly pulled out the stops (I caught Laurie Taylor's rather lovely Making Mandela, the Newshour special and bits of the Robben Island documentaries) but in the end, Peterson's Mandela mix was the one that made me stop and pay attention. No lengthy eulogising, just a very moving, musical celebration of a life steeped in history: Gil Scott-Heron's Johannesburg, Miriam Makeba's Soweto Blues and the ever-glorious pairing of Maze and Frankie Beverly's Mandela.
There is no glory in being consistent and reliable, but Peterson lifts Saturday afternoons on 6 with the same sort of thing he produced for late night Radio 1, with the bonus of being in a more accessible slot (sidenote: Peterson's Journeys by DJ compilation is still one well worth trying to dig out).
Of all the interviews you might expect to descend into unbearable grimness, *iPM's My Husband was a Child Sex Offender* would be fairly near the top. But credit to Becky Milligan, who sensitively extracted the story of a woman who discovered, after decades of marriage, that her husband was an offender. He's now in prison and she's rebuilding their life, carrying the burden of "helping him to rehabilitate" on his release. Gripping. Reported by guardian.co.uk 20 hours ago.
• Gilles Peterson
• Sex offender
Is *Gilles Peterson* having a moment? It's difficult to say so without suggesting there might have been a time when GP, a pioneer in mainstreaming global sounds, crashed or dipped. And really, while Acid Jazz or Afro Latin fusion might have fallen in and out of fashion, the truth is Peterson has quietly carried on doing his thing and been consistently great at it. It's not sexy headline news but his show, like Tom Ravenscroft's, is one I would put in the "Shazam-special" category; the sort of specially curated playlist where, as a listener, you find yourself stopping mid-Saturday chore to rabbit-hole through ever more obscure musical discoveries. Amazonian electronica? Sure. West African folk rhythms? Yeah, why not.
Saturday's show on 6 Music, following the death of Nelson Mandela, was a case in point. Radio 4 and the World Service expectedly pulled out the stops (I caught Laurie Taylor's rather lovely Making Mandela, the Newshour special and bits of the Robben Island documentaries) but in the end, Peterson's Mandela mix was the one that made me stop and pay attention. No lengthy eulogising, just a very moving, musical celebration of a life steeped in history: Gil Scott-Heron's Johannesburg, Miriam Makeba's Soweto Blues and the ever-glorious pairing of Maze and Frankie Beverly's Mandela.
There is no glory in being consistent and reliable, but Peterson lifts Saturday afternoons on 6 with the same sort of thing he produced for late night Radio 1, with the bonus of being in a more accessible slot (sidenote: Peterson's Journeys by DJ compilation is still one well worth trying to dig out).
Of all the interviews you might expect to descend into unbearable grimness, *iPM's My Husband was a Child Sex Offender* would be fairly near the top. But credit to Becky Milligan, who sensitively extracted the story of a woman who discovered, after decades of marriage, that her husband was an offender. He's now in prison and she's rebuilding their life, carrying the burden of "helping him to rehabilitate" on his release. Gripping. Reported by guardian.co.uk 20 hours ago.
