1. Gilles Peterson is renowned for his genre-defying approach to music with jazz at its core.
16 Facts About Gilles Peterson
1. 2.
Gilles Peterson spent his teenage years putting up radio transmitters for the pirates and playing on stations such as Horizon, K-Jazz and Starpoint.
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In March 1990, Gilles Peterson joined London's first-ever dedicated jazz station 102.2 Jazz FM at its launch.
4.
Gilles Peterson was dismissed from the station after playing anti-war songs and making anti-war comments during the first Gulf War.
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Gilles Peterson then joined Kiss FM in 1991, the station having become legal the year before, where he remained until 1998 when he joined BBC Radio 1 with his Worldwide show, in which he presented a wide range of music helping audiences join the dots between different genres.
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In late 2011, Gilles Peterson announced that, after 13 years at the station, he would be leaving Radio 1, following his last show in the early hours of 28 March and moving to a new show on BBC Radio 6 Music.
7.
Gilles Peterson started his new three-hour Saturday afternoon show on 7 April 2012, which continues to this day.
8.
In 2013, Peterson launched Worldwide FM as an in-game radio station on Grand Theft Auto V In 2016, it became a new global music-radio platform named Worldwide FM.
9.
From his early teens, Gilles Peterson played at local South London wine bars and clubs as part of the burgeoning jazz funk scene.
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Gilles Peterson then started playing back rooms and weekenders across London and the South East gaining inspiration from Manchester's legendary Berlin club, among others.
11.
The label is known for its long running compilation series, compiled by Gilles Peterson, called Brownswood Bubblers and emerging talent series Future Bubblers.
12.
In 2006, Gilles Peterson worked with Freshly Cut, a French event production company from Montpellier, to create the Worldwide Festival, a small intimate festival during the summertime in the coastal town of Sete in France.
13.
In 2018, in partnership with Ed Wilson of Brawn and Mercati Generali - Gilles Peterson launched the Ricci Weekender in Catania, Sicily bringing together a unique mixture of music, DJs, food and wine which celebrated its 6th edition in 2024.
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In 2019, Gilles Peterson helped found a new festival We Out Here with New Bohemia.
15.
In 2024, Gilles Peterson launched Impressions in partnership with the Fondation Maeght in St Paul-De-Vence walking in the footsteps of Albert Ayler and Sun Ra featuring spiritual music played in the Miro sculpture garden.
16.
Gilles Peterson was born in Caen, Normandy, France to a French mother and Swiss father and moved with his family to South London during childhood.