Kevin Le Gendre

Kevin Le Gendre is a British journalist, broadcaster and author whose work focuses on Black music. He is deputy editor of Echoes magazine, has written for a wide range of publications, including Jazzwise, MusicWeek, Vibrations, The Independent On Sunday and The Guardian, and is a contributor to such radio programmes as BBC Radio 3's J to Z and BBC Radio 4's Front Row. At the 2009 Parliamentary Jazz Awards Le Gendre was chosen as "Jazz Journalist of the Year". Le Gendre was born to parents who migrated to Britain from Trinidad, where he lived as a child. He is now resident in Seven Sisters, north London. Although he did not study music formally, Le Gendre has said: "I have been listening to music all of my life having been exposed to it from a young age by my parents. They ... played soca and calypso until they wore the record out, as well as soul and jazz. I was one of those kids who listened to records over and over again." In 1997, he began writing for Echoes (which was originally called Black Echoes) and is now the magazine's deputy editor. Among other publications to which he has contributed are Jazzwise, Vibrations, Music Week, The Jazz Mann, The Independent, The Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian. As a reviewer, interviewer and broadcaster, Le Gendre appears regularly on BBC Radio (for example, Radio 3's J to Z), as well as at festivals and other events. In 2018, he joined the teaching staff of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Le Gendre is the author of two well received books on the history of Black music: Soul Unsung: Reflections On The Band In Black Popular Music (2012) and Don't Stop the Carnival: Black British Music: Vol 1 from the Middle Ages to the 1960s (2018). Soul Unsung was described in Record Collector as a "thought-provoking and endlessly informative book by a writer who knows his subject inside-out and, just as importantly, clearly adores it.