Long Sutton man’s jazz show picked up by German station

A jazz musician’s show has been picked up by a German radio station and will be aired in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

John Petters, 71, from Long Sutton, is a self taught professional jazz drummer and presenter of Now You Has Jazz, Jazz, Jazz on Spalding's Sound of Spitfire internet radio station.

His jazz show goes out live at 7pm on Monday nights - Chilli Jazz Radio in Lincoln also broadcast it -and it has now been taken up by a small Shortwave AM station in Germany.

Mr Petters said: “I have been presenting my weekly jazz show on Sound Of Spitfire since 2021.

“I have guest musicians that I interview and play their records and talk abut jazz history.

“The show is being taken up by a small Shortwave AM station in Germany, run by enthusiasts, which is being transmitted to the UK and Benelux Countries.”

Mr Petters has lectured in jazz history at U3A in Long Sutton, given talks about Gospel music and worked as an amateur radio host.

It was Sean Moyses, aka The Banjo Man, who put him in touch with Shortwaveradio.de and the test transmission was on Saturday via 6.160Mhz and 3.975Mhz.

Mr Petters said: “Sean is also a radio ham and we share that interest.

“He mentioned this shortwave station that had started broadcasting run by radio hams and said it sounds like the right vehicle for my show.

“We did the pilot on Saturday - it all seems to be taking off.”

Mr Petters grew up in Harlow and after looking into his family tree found family connections to the Fens.

He has enjoyed a long career as a professional jazz drummer, learning by ear.

He said: “I saw this jazz band in a movie and collected records as a kid.

“I heard Bing Crosby and I thought ‘I like this’.

“My uncle had a drum kit which had stayed in a cupboard and at the age of 15 I decided I wanted to play.

Along with Bing Crosby, another influence on his career was the prime vocalist Louis Armstrong.

He said: “I released over 40 CDs and several in New Orleans.

“I was a consultant and appeared on the BBC4 documentary Trad Jazz Britannia.

“I brought a number of veteran American jazz legends over to tour before they all died.”

He still performs live with the John Petters Swing Band but since the Covid pandemic, live gigs have not been as busy.

Mr Petters said: “I became a jazz historian after having requests to do talks on jazz history.

“When Covid was happening it wrecked the arts and there weren't many gigs.

“I never intend to retire from playing. I hope I would have the discernment to know when I couldn't do it anymore.”