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Mondo Jazz, a new radio program hosted by Italian-turned-New Yorker Ludovico Granvassu, with a mission of showcasing international jazz that’s not readily available on American airwaves. Starting on 15th of November, the show will broadcast on Wednesdays from 10 p.m. to midnight via Radio Free Brooklyn.
Radio Free Brooklyn is an non profit organisation whose mission is to give a global voice to local artists, residents, community organizers and other non-profit institutions by providing a commercial-free freeform Internet Radio platform, streaming original content by the artists and residents of New York City’s most populous borough 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Host Ludovico Granvassu said in releation to his new program, “When I first moved to the United States I was surprised that, in the country where customers have unlimited choices, I could go to a supermarket and find 80 different brands of cereal, but in a record store the selection of jazz albums was much narrower than in record stores in Oslo, Tokyo, Brussels, London, Rome, Paris, etc. It was therefore not surprising that the playlists of the major radio stations was equally narrow,” says host Granvassu. “How could it be that, in the land which gave birth to this music, jazz fans had fewer options than jazz fans from anywhere else in the world? I quickly realized that whereas record stores and radio stations abroad naturally featured albums from the US, they also included albums by international jazz musicians since there are thriving jazz scenes everywhere, which produce excellent artists. These foreign artists were virtually unknown in the US and absent from American airwaves.”
“My mission with Mondo Jazz is to share some of my favorite international artists with US jazz fans to widen their listening options,” adds host Granvassu. “Needless to say there will be plenty of US jazz on my program, in an attempt to show the continuity that exists between the US and the international jazz scenes. Mondo Jazz is dedicated to the proposition that jazz is a language that originated in the US but is now spoken all over the world in various, at times very strong, accents and dialects, which make it a rich resource for rewarding sonic explorations. In the end, I hope to give a small contribution towards making barriers (across music-genres and nationalities) meaningless, and show that all that matters is people, the beauty of their music and the emotions it can generate.”
The second episode of Mondo Jazz airs tonight at 10pm (new York Time) and will re-run on Thursday. For those not able to listen via the live stream the shows will be available as podcast on both Mixcloud.
Tonight’s show will be themed “Jazz and Travel” and will explore music that was inspired by the relentless travels that jazz musicians have to do to share their music with their audience, their departures and arrivals, their adventures and misadventures using trains and planes. Music inspired by the places and the people they encounter as they travel, in space and in time.
The next show will air on 29 November and will have the theme, Film Noir Jazz Soundtracks.
More Information go to the Mondo Jazz show page at the Radio Free Brooklyn website or visit the MondoJazz Facebook page to receive playlists in advance of the show.
Last modified: July 15, 2018
