Gilles Peterson, The BBC Sessions, Vol 1.

Over the past five or so years, Gilles Peterson has been quietly building up a body of work, inviting old friends and peers from his world-wide travels to jam, experiment and collaborate in live sessions, recorded in the legendary BBC Maida Vale studios for the ‘Worldwide’ radio show. With the majority of these tracks aired only once before gathering dust in the BBC vaults, and some (including music from Bjork, Roisin Murphy and Common) never previously heard, this makes for a unique and fascinating compilation. The eminent Mr P has built up a fair body of work from his live sessions and I dare say choices for what was to go into The BBC Sessions were made with due heartwrenching and anguished decisions.

His latest presentation represents an already huge and diverse body of live work, including some of the groups Peterson championed over his past five years on the Radio 1 Worldwide slot, such as New Zealand fusioneers, Fat Freddy’s Drop. The name of this game is without doubt live in its many and varied forms - from the huge Heritage Orchestra (a funny track to kick off on), the stunning ‘Audience’, from Matthew Herbert, N.E.R.D’s playful jam, to a superb and moving collaboration between Bjצrk and Rahzel. You can’t help but stand back in admiration at the man who gets this force of live talent on the air in the face of overwhelming trash, who pushes experimental and global vibes out to a public gasping for fresh sounds.

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