Uno, Dos, Uno, Dos, Tres, Quatro
I can’t quite remember now where or when I first heard Lady Day and John Coltrane by Gil Scott-Heron. I knew who Coltrane was, but who is Lady Day? I really took a liking to this catchy, funky number, and would later discover that Lady Day was the nickname of jazz singer Billie Holiday.
So then who was this artist singing with such a deeply textured tone, striking in its depth, with such conviction and command? When I first heard the song, it wasn’t on an album, but must have been playing on the radio or perhaps on a compilation. My memory has very much lost me here, but I know I was eager to find out more.
As I swam further into Gil’s catalogue, I was deeply impacted by his vocal tone. Time and time again, it would strike a bell inside the walls of my heart space, awakening the deepest wells of feeling.
Still today, certain songs will just play an ocean of water. I guess that is the beauty of music, when you really feel it, it can hit hard.
Gil Scott-Heron (1949 - 2011)
Born: Chicago, Illinois, America
“Like Gil used to say, our albums were survival kits.” Brian Jackson, reflecting on Pieces of a Man and how the album was created in a 2022 interview published in Wax Poetics (Qobuz Magazine).
Gil Scott-Heron had a knack for opening the heart space. But what experiences and evolutions shaped that voice, with its power to move generations?
Born in Chicago, Gil went to live with his maternal grandmother, Lillie Scott, in Jackson, Tennessee, following his parents’ separation. His mother was a librarian, while his father travelled to Scotland to play professional soccer. It was his grandmother, Lillie, who introduced him to the work of his favourite poet, Langston Hughes, a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance.
When his grandmother died, Gil, just 12 years old, returned to live with his Mum in the Bronx, New York. He would go on to earn a full scholarship to the prestigious Fieldston School, having impressed his English teachers with his literary aptitude.
At Fieldston, Gil would experience firsthand how socioeconomic differences could flavour one’s place in the world, creating a sense of alienation amongst peers, regardless of how smart or gifted you might be.
Next came Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, where another experience would take shape, one to translate through the power of words and help form Gil’s evolving ethos. His favourite poet, that’s right, Langston Hughes, had also been a student there.
Great company begets great company.
Brian Jackson (1969)
It sounds like Gil was hungry from the onset to get busy and had plenty of spoken ammunition to unleash. As Brian Jackson (keyboardist, flautist, singer, composer and producer) recalls, Gil had already published a book of poetry, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox: A Collection of Black Poems, and was working on a novel, The Vulture, at just 19 years old. Brian was so impressed by their first divinely guided meeting, where Gil shared his song “Peace”, that he was eager to join forces.
“I heard it and it completely blew me away. I couldn't believe that it was written by this 19-year-old kid.” — Brian Jackson (TIDAL interview)
Both were artistically driven, sharing a deep admiration for jazz greats such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders. With Gil's magnetic voice and poetic articulation combined with Brian's compositional finesse, the stars were aligned as these kindred spirits were about to find themselves in extremely good company. After forming their band, Black and Blues, fate would have Bob Thiele of Flying Dutchman Records at the centre of this creative convergence.
“The first revolution is when you change your mind about how you look at things, and see there might be another way to look at it that you have not been shown.” Gil Scott-Heron
Great company begets great company.
Bob Thiele would bring in Ron Carter, a respected double bassist and electric bassist who had performed with Miles Davis, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie on drums, who had toured with Aretha Franklin and served as her musical director, and Hubert Laws on flute, a classically trained, seasoned performer who had studied at Juilliard. To complete the line-up, Burt Jones joined on electric guitar, while Johnny Pate’s conducting helped shape and refine the arrangements.
Pieces of a Man
Pieces of a Man blended soul, jazz and poetry to make an iconic album whose impact has stood the test of time. It remains a thought-provoking work that continues to move generations and ask society to question itself. The surrounding musicality was the perfect melting pot, delivering an exceptional sound with songs like ‘When you are who you are’ and ‘I’ll think I’ll call it morning’, that certainly, most importantly, move the heart.
Bobbito Garcia (also known as Kool Bob Love) shared that Gil told him personally that he listened to the song "I Think I'll Call It Morning" every day to start his morning.
I'm gonna take myself a piece of sunshine
And paint it all over my sky Lyrics
“A good poet feels what his community feels.” Gil Scott-Heron
Winter in America
Proceeding would be Free Will (1972), followed by their landmark album Winter in America (1974). Featuring their most successfully received underground classic, “The Bottle”, the album helped open the door to their signing with Clive Davis of Arista Records in 1975. Released on the independent Strata-East label, it was stripped back, incorporating African and R&B sounds, with Jackson’s arrangements rooted in jazz and blues.
The album has been recognised for its influence on early hip-hop, with Gil Scott-Heron often acknowledged as the Godfather of Hip-Hop.
Further albums would be added to the Scott-Heron and Jackson collaborations, however, as their creative paths began to diverge, Reflections (1981) would be created without Jackson’s involvement. Moving Target (1982) would then follow, and after a long gap in recording saw Gil return with Spirits (1994).
I’m New Here (2010)
Richard Russell, owner and producer of the independent label XL Recordings, reached out to Gil Scott-Heron to see if he would be interested in working on an album together. Deeply moved by Pieces of a Man and its significance as a landmark album, Richard was inspired to reach out and explore what might be created together.
“The vision was influenced by Gil’s first record, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. The word I used early on that Gil picked up on was spartan. To mean simple, to mean stripped-down, and to mean only the essential elements and components. We referred to that word often while recording.” — Richard Russell in the DJ Booth interview.
With just 15 tracks and a running time of 29 minutes, the album delivers a final, enduring statement from Gil Scott-Heron. He would pass away a little over a year later, leaving behind a body of work that continues to resonate across generations and touch hearts around the world.
Hip-hop artists such as Chuck D of Public Enemy would help carry Gil Scott-Heron’s socially conscious ethos forward, with artists such as Common, Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar bringing his words and rhythms into new musical landscapes and introducing his work to new generations of listeners.
It is evident through the music Gil loved life and people, and was moved by the forces that caused hardship and separation. Through music, he could speak from a place of shared humanity, reaching people in a way that harnessed the power of words to inspire change.
By lighting a torch on society, he ultimately sought to unify through the power of his words and touch the very essence of the human heart.
