Gil Scott Heron and musical partner Brian Jackson met while attending Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
Remarkably, Scott-Heron never planned to be a musical artist; originally, his aspiration was to become the most important poet and urban w… Read more
Gil Scott Heron and musical partner Brian Jackson met while attending Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
Remarkably, Scott-Heron never planned to be a musical artist; originally, his aspiration was to become the most important poet and urban writer since Harlem renaissance icon Langston Hughes. But thanks in large part to the favorable reception of the book of poetry, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, Scott-Heron was introduced to legendary producer Bob Thiele, who had worked with every major jazz artist from Louis Armstrong to John Coltrane. Thiele encouraged Scott-Heron to perform his poetry, and for his debut release, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, recorded the young bard reciting over a backing ensemble of percussionists. Thiele produced two more critically acclaimed albums for his Flying Dutchman Records: 1971's Pieces of a Man and '72's Free Will, in addition to the aforementioned . He and Jackson produced Winter in America, in '73, which yielded the hit "The Bottle" (performed here). In 1975, Scott-Heron became the first artist signed to Clive Davis' newly launched Arista label, where he and Jackson produced six albums together, until artistic differences led them to go their separate ways in 1980 (the same year, incidentally, that Scott-Heron was booked as the opener for Stevie Wonder's Hotter Than July tour).
Gil Scott-Heron retired from recording around 1985, when he parted ways with Arista (although he has since issued one release on TVT Records, 1994's Spirits). Brian Jackson lives in New York and continues to perform, collaborating with various spoken word artists, producers and musicians from all over the globe. Though the two artists have since parted ways, the music they produced was expressively innovative and culturally challenging.
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