Clubs

Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards at Cargo on Saturday is billed as ‘A who’s who of who’s hot in the world of Peterson’ in Cargo’s press release, so it’s not surprising that it’s also sometimes referred to as the AGM of the Gilles Peterson Appreciation Society. Mr Peterson himself would probably balk at that – he confessed that he was ‘totally staggered’ when 1500 people turned up when he DJed on a Tuesday night in Washington DC recently, a sign of the online popularity of his Radio 1 show in the States, ‘and they were clamouring, they idolised me, it was ridiculous’ – but there’s no doubt that Mr Peterson is a DJ listeners and dancers trust. They may not love every tune he plays but they believe that he loves the music and that seal of approval means a lot to them. He’s a conviction DJ at a time when many national radio DJs appear to blow about like a weather vane in the shifting storms of musical fashion Feature continues

As Peterson happily admits, this is partly because he aims to please himself, and his own tastes have always been wide-ranging. ‘I just play what I want, whether it’s at Fabric, Plastic People or The End,’ he says, adding that one of the reasons he loved his long-running residency at Bar Rumba was that the sound system was so good that ‘when I was there I could really enjoy playing music. Forget the crowd, I could really enjoy listening to music myself.’

If that suggests selfishness, it belies his skill and desire to display and share his passions, and also the pleasure he takes in helping musicians develop. ‘That was one thing I really enjoyed about Talkin’ Loud [the label he ran for 13 years] where I wasn’t the centre of attention. The nice thing about running a record label is you can take a back seat; you can guide it and enjoy other people’s success.’ He’s now running the smaller Brownswood Recordings label, and says ‘It’s really good to see Ben Westbeech or José James or the Heritage Orchestra doing well, and making music that I can play.’

Sometimes his diversity can cause DJing dilemmas. When Peterson interviewed Kruder and Dorfmeister for Time Out in 2002 they said ‘the style we play is always changing. People come, they expect something. Then they hear something completely different but they are still satisfied in the end.’ Does he feel the same way?

‘Totally, yeah. There’s always a bit of a dilemma with me when I play out, especially when you’ve been playing for so long. I probably reach four or five different clubbing generations. Because most people club for a few years and then they drop out, have kids or whatever, and then there’s the next lot, so I’ve got people who want to hear me play jazz, people who want to hear drum ’n’ bass, or interesting European techy house, or West Coast hip hop or Brazilian, so it can be kind of tricky.’

But that range is also hugely appealing and the reason that the awards ceremony on Saturday was nearly sold out as we went to press – he stresses that once the awards are done, they’ll open the doors again because it’s going to continue after 4am. He outlines the myriad talents of the performers who will be appearing but it's when he comes to one in particular that he demonstrates the added value that his ability to ‘join the dots’ across genres and styles brings to almost any musical equation: ‘And we’ve got Steve Reid. I’m really excited about him being there because he’s like 60-something now and you know, fucking hell, he’s played with Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Fela Kuti, James Brown… He was the drummer on Martha Reeves and the Vandellas’ "Dancing In The Street", and he’s just done his first album for Domino – so he’s signed to the same label as Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand! – he’s working with Kieran Hebden and he’s the most charismatic and genuine bloke that you could hope to meet. And to have someone like him around backstage, you know, chatting away with, say, Benga from the dubstep scene or Zed Bias, that excites me, that’s what it’s all about.’

Peterson has always mixed things around and ‘tried to culturally clash the music’ (inciting the ire of the easily riled jazz purists back in the day). In doing so he’s also played a lot of house music, which he showcases on a ‘Gilles Peterson In The House’ compilation which Defected release next month. The triple-CD format enables him to do one disc of ‘the roots of house, disco, boogie, jazz-funk and soul classics, which is basically my history and which sounds wicked now’. He’s pulled out ‘all my big house records of 2007, ranging from New York-style soulful house to European electronica on another CD and ‘the third CD was me asking a bunch of my friends to do a track for me.’ Nice friends if you can get them, as there are a dozen exclusive tunes from producers including Louie Vega, DJ Sneak, Karizma and Carl Craig. And there’s one by Gilles Peterson and DJ Switch too.

Compilations and one-off sets are all very well, but what his fans will want, and Peterson now craves again, is another weekly DJ set in the great tradition of his residencies at The Electric Ballroom, The Wag, Dingwalls and Bar Rumba which stretch back to the mid-’80s. He’s a firm believer in the importance of residencies to ‘keep the scene buoyant’, enable DJs to change a culture and create a movement, but he’ll need the right-sized venue with a ‘supersonic sound system.’

‘London is so amazing,’ he says, ‘but for a city which has the most buzzing club culture by far in the world, it’s a shame that there’s really only a few clubs with world-class sound.’ Watch this space though, as rumours suggest a marriage between Mr Peterson and a new venue is surely on the cards for 2008.

Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards is at Cargo on Jan 5. ‘Gilles Peterson: In the House’ (Defected) is out on Feb11.