About
Meet the Host: Gianluca Tramontana
Gianluca is a seasoned music journalist with an impressive career spanning The Guardian and MOJO in the UK and as the US correspondent for JAM in Italy. Formerly with Rolling Stone, he’s also a radio host and has crafted and presented radio pieces and documentaries for NPR and the BBC.
His dedication took him to Guantanamo Province, Cuba, where he spent two and a half years documenting changüí musical culture and its people. This effort resulted in the first and only collection of “in situ” recordings including a photo book, which received critical acclaim and was featured on the BBC, NPR, PRI, and CBC, winning multiple “Best Of” awards. His work earned a mention in Da Capo Press’s “Best Music Writing of 2009”.
Additionally, Gianluca co-created, wrote, and hosted The Outer Voices Podcast series, which focused on global stories. He has also contributed to Vineri in Romania and served as the music editor for Zembla magazine in the UK.
Assorted Articles
AC/DC Rock London
Veteran rockers AC/DC played a high-octane performance in front of 5,000 ticket-holders in London to celebrate the opening of the Hammersmith Apollo, formerly known as the Hammersmith Odeon. The band had...
MC5 Come Together in London
“We are not the MC5,” announced founding MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer during a Thursday press conference at London’s 100 Club. “This is not an MC5 show. This is not an...
After Twenty-Year Layoff, Meters Don’t Miss a Beat
When, on the verge of a huge commercial breakthrough, a group fizzles out amid such business and financial chaos, allegations, accusations and still unresolved wrangling over publishing as the...
Another Side of Woody Guthrie: Recently Discovered Collection Captures the Sounds of ‘Woody At Home’
Woody Guthrie was named after progressive president Woodrow Wilson, who advanced policies on government regulation and social welfare. He was also born on Bastille Day, a turning point of...
This Is the Room Your Favorite Song Came From
LISTEN HERE This summer, Nashville was buzzing with the news that one of the most prolific music studios in a city full of them, RCA Studio A, had been sold...
Honeyboy Edwards
LISTEN HERE Before he was a famous blues guitarist known as “Honeyboy,” David Edwards was a different kind of legend — a boxcar hobo. Gianluca Tramontana visited him on the South Side of Chicago.
Cuban Organ
LISTEN HERE Music journalist Gianluca Tramontana took a bumpy, 8-hour bus ride from Havana to the remote eastern province of Granma —- the heart of Cuba’s sugarcane country — to find...
The J&M Records Story
LISTEN HERE At the edge of New Orleans’ French Quarter sits the Clothes Spin Laundromat. Sixty years ago, rock ‘n’ roll took its baby steps there. As Gianluca Tramontana discovered, it’s...
Family Toasts John Phillips’ 66th
Actresses and singers Mackenzie, Chynna and Bijou Phillips hosted a small reception in New York on August 28th to celebrate the release of Phillips 66, their father John Phillips’ posthumous...
Peter Green Still Has Blues
Very quietly, blues legend Peter Green has just released Time Traders, the fifth release by his band the Peter Green Splinter Group since it began in 1996. The former John Mayall guitar...
‘Wild Thing still gives me the chills!’ Chip Taylor
Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, Janis Joplin and dozens more sang his songs, which spanned country, rock, R&B and beyond. Now 83 and having treatment for cancer, Taylor explains why...
Blues Skies for B.B. King
It’s good to be the King — B.B. King, to be specific. In the last month, the legendary bluesman saw his collaboration with Eric Clapton, Riding with the King, debut at No....