Jazzwise’s Val Wilmer to be featured on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs

Legendary photographer, writer and regular Jazzwise contributor Val Wilmer  gets stranded on a remote island next month when she is the castaway on the BBC's long-running Desert Island Discs programme.

The show, which airs on BBC Radio 4 at 11.15am on Sunday, 4 February, will be repeated the following Friday (9 Feb) and will thereafter be available for unlimited listening via the BBC website and BBC Sounds app.

Val is renowned for her portraits of musicians (including many of the giants of black music, from Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Duke EllingtonandAlbert Ayler to Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker) but also her documentary photos. She has also photographed many leading pop and rock stars, including The Rolling Stones, Bobbie Gentry, The Yardbirds and The Hollies.

In addition, she has worked with, written about and known, many jazz titans, and has been writing about the music since her first piece was published in Jazz Journal back in 1959. Since then, and over the decades, Wilmer has been a contributor to many publications including Melody Maker, DownBeat (she was its UK correspondent from 1966-1970), and The Wire, and her regular pieces for Jazzwise are a big favourite with readers.

She is the author of several books including Jazz People, The Face of Black Music, As Serious As Your Life, and her memoir Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This, and she has also published biographical articles on black British musicians from the 1940s and 50s as well as full biographies. Val has also written almost biographies for the Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography.

Val's knowledge of music, and her ability to tell a story are legendary, so we can guarantee that this edition of DID will make for essential listening. She's keeping the records she’s selected secret, so make sure you tune in when the programme airs!

To listen to the show visit www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/