The radio station with the largest audience in South Sudan has launched a weekly jazz programme with a “heavy dose of classical jazz.”

Radio Miraya's new 6/9 Jazz program aired every Saturday night features such jazz legends as Miles Davis, an American trumpeter and composer, and Tony Allen, a Nigerian musician who has been called “perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived.”

We spoke to Miraya's David Lukan, producer and presenter of the show, to find out what it was about.

When is the show?

Once a week. Saturdays from 6 pm to 7 pm and repeated on Sundays same time.

I am planning to expand the show to three hours… (from 6 to 9 pm).

Could you share a sample playlist with us from one of the shows?

Miles Davis - All Blues

Miles Davis - So What

Duke Ellington & John Coltrane - In A Centimental Mood

Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil (1964)

Ella Fitzgerald - When I Get Low I Get High

Vince Guaraldi Trio - Linus & Lucy

Nina Simone - Feeling Good

Ahmad Jamal-Invitation

Omar Sosa - Promised Land

Tony Allen - Boat Journey

Rabih Abou-Khalil - Dreams Of A Dying City

Omer Avital - Hafla

Fatoumata Diawara & Roberto Fonseca-Clandestin

Portico Quartet - Gaia

And others

Is the focus on all jazz, or is African jazz getting special attention?

All jazz with a heavy dose of classic jazz.

Have you received any listener feedback yet?

Yes from you (laughs). Otherwise you wouldn’t be interviewing me now. It's four weeks now since I launched the show on April 2. I’ve received feedback from my people in the radio and close friends, which is encouraging, and calls for room to improve and be strong in regards to delivery. This is okay because I got the two faces of the coin revealed to me. Now from the other listeners, I always give my email at the end of the show, so I wait, no rush, they will come eventually.

Did Miraya have a particular audience in mind when you added the jazz show? 

No. First of all, it is my passion for Jazz and I thought it will be good to share and give our audience something different, or variety, if you like. So if someone got inspired and wanted to do something meaningful, give love and be loved, live peacefully and preach peace, and proper jazz in South Sudan, that will be a welcome unintended result of the show.

So I have no goals for 6/9 Jazz except sharing the universal language that is Jazz, a gift from Africa to America and to the entire world.