Peter Levine

Peter Levine, AKA Pedro, is the host of Thursday Morning Jazz ("Jazz Straight Ahead") on WWUH Radio.

Peter began listening to WWUH after getting a tour of the station in 2010. He started doing fill-in work for jazz programs on WWUH early in 2018 and was asked to take over Thursday Morning Jazz in April of 2019. He focuses mainly on smaller, instrumental groups from the 40s through today, with emphasis on swing, bop and hard bop. His passion for this music was inherited from his father, who hosted a jazz program on WKCR, Columbia University’s radio station. As a teenager, Peter would spend hours sitting on the living room floor listening, learning the names of the players, and getting to know the music on vinyl and reel-to-reel tape, and was even asked to record a night of the Newport Jazz Festival in 1959 via telephone patch. Hanging around a small FM-AM station that broadcast classical music and jazz was also an exciting activity.

Peter, was a professional drummer, had a union card for Local 802 in NYC and had bands throughout college. He hosted a classical music show on the Georgia State College station in Atlanta and was trying to start a radio station at his alma mater, Georgia Tech. From 2007 until 2016, he hosted and helped manage WBCR-lp in Great Barrington, MA.

“Jazz should invoke passion, be engaging, sensual and exciting. That’s what I play for my listeners. This is not elevator music. It has groove. It is evocative. It is uniquely American with roots in Africa and the Caribbean and can mix beautifully with classical music. I hope my audience will share my love for this music”.