Gil Scott-Heron
Background information
Birth name	Gilbert Scott-Heron
Born	April 1, 1949(1949-04-01) (age 61) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Genres	Soul, jazz poetry, spoken word soul, jazz-funk, proto-rap
Occupations	Poet, singer, songwriter, author
Instruments	Vocals, electric piano, guitar
Years active	1969–present
Labels	RCA, Flying Dutchman, Strata East, Arista, TVT, XL Recordings
Associated acts	Brian Jackson, Ron Holloway, Musicians United for Safe Energy, Black and Blues

Gil Scott-Heron (born April 1, 1949) is an American poet, musician, and author known primarily for his late 1970s and early 1980s work as a spoken word performer and his collaborative soul works with musician Brian Jackson. His collaborative efforts with Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues and soul music, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. The music of these albums, most notably Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. Scott-Heron's recording work is often associated with black militant activism and has received much critical acclaim for one of his most well-known compositions "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". On his influence, Allmusic wrote "Scott-Heron's unique proto-rap style influenced a generation of hip-hop artists".[1]

Early years

Gil Scott-Heron was born in Chicago, Illinois, but spent his early childhood in Jackson, Tennessee, the home of his maternal grandmother Lillie Scott. Gil's mother, Bobbie Scott-Heron, sang with the New York Oratorical Society. Scott-Heron's Jamaican father, Giles "Gil" Heron, nicknamed "The Black Arrow", was a football (soccer) player who, in the 1950s, became the first black athlete to play for Glasgow's Celtic Football Club. Gil's parents divorced when he was young and Gil was sent to live with his Grandmother Lillie Scott.[2] When Scott-Heron was 13 years old, his grandmother died and he moved with his mother to the Bronx in New York City, where he enrolled in DeWitt Clinton High School. He later transferred to The Fieldston School after one of his teachers, a Fieldston graduate, showed one of his writings to the head of the English department at Fieldston and he was granted a full scholarship.

Scott-Heron attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, as it was the college chosen by his biggest influence Langston Hughes. It was here that Scott-Heron met Brian Jackson with whom he formed the band Black & Blues. After about two years at Lincoln, Scott-Heron took a year off to write the novels The Vulture and The Nigger Factory.[3] He returned to New York City, settling in Chelsea, Manhattan, which was a multiracial and multicultural neighborhood. The Vulture was published in 1970 and well received. Although Scott-Heron never received his undergraduate degree, he has a Masters degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University.

Recording career

Scott-Heron began his recording career in 1970 with the LP Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. Bob Thiele of Flying Dutchman Records produced the album, and Scott-Heron was accompanied by Eddie Knowles and Charlie Saunders on conga and David Barnes on percussion and vocals. The album's 15 tracks dealt with themes such as the superficiality of television and mass consumerism, the hypocrisy of some would-be Black revolutionaries, white middle-class ignorance of the difficulties faced by inner-city residents, and homophobia. In the liner notes, Scott-Heron acknowledged as influences Richie Havens, John Coltrane, Otis Redding, Jose Feliciano, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Nina Simone, and the pianist who would become his long-time collaborator, Brian Jackson.

Scott-Heron's 1971 album Pieces of a Man used more conventional song structures than the loose, spoken-word feel of Small Talk. He was joined by Johnny Pate (conductor), Brian Jackson on keyboards, piano, Ron Carter on bass and bass guitar, drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, Burt Jones playing electric guitar, and Hubert Laws on flute and saxophone, with Thiele producing again. Scott-Heron's third album, Free Will, was released in 1972. Jackson, Purdie, Laws, Knowles, and Saunders all returned to play on Free Will and were joined by Jerry Jemmott playing bass, David Spinozza on guitar, and Horace Ott (arranger and conductor).

1974 saw another LP collaboration with Brian Jackson, the critically acclaimed opus Winter in America, with Bob Adams on drums and Danny Bowens on bass. The album contained Scott-Heron's most cohesive material and featured more of Jackson's creative input than his previous albums had. Winter in America has been regarded by many critics as the two musicians most artistic effort.[4][5] The following year, Scott-Heron and Jackson also released Midnight Band: The First Minute of a New Day. A live album, It's Your World, followed in 1976 and a recording of spoken poetry, The Mind of Gil Scott-Heron, was released in 1979. In the July 1976 Bicentennial issue of Playboy Scott-Heron was profiled; the accompanying artwork shows Scott-Heron singing or speaking into a microphone as it melts from the heat of his words.[citation needed] Another hit success followed with the hit single "Angel Dust", which he recorded as a single with producer Malcolm Cecil. "Angel Dust" peaked at #15 on the R&B charts in 1978.

In 1979, Scott-Heron played at the No Nukes concerts at Madison Square Garden. The concerts were organized by Musicians United for Safe Energy to protest the use of nuclear energy following the Three Mile Island accident. Scott-Heron's song "We Almost Lost Detroit", written about a previous accident at a nuclear power plant, was included in the No Nukes album of concert highlights. (We Almost Lost Detroit is the title of a book about the accident by John G. Fuller.) Scott-Heron was a frequent critic of President Ronald Reagan and his conservative policies.

Scott-Heron recorded and released only four albums during the 1980s; 1980 and Real Eyes in 1980, Reflections in 1981 and Moving Target in 1982. Ron Holloway on tenor saxophone was added to Gil's ensemble in February 1982. He toured extensively with Scott-Heron and contributed to his next album, Moving Target that same year. His tenor is prominently featured on the songs "Fast Lane" and "Black History/The World". Holloway continued with Scott-Heron until the summer of 1989, when he left to join Dizzy Gillespie. Several years later, Scott-Heron would make cameo appearances on two of Ron Holloway's CD's; Scorcher (1996) and Groove Update (1998), both on the Fantasy/Milestone label.[6]

Scott-Heron was dropped by Arista Records in 1985 and quit recording, though he continued to tour. Also that year, Scott-Heron helped compose and sing the song "Let Me See Your I.D." on the Artists United Against Apartheid album Sun City, containing the famous line, "The first time I heard there was trouble in the Middle East, I thought they were talking about Pittsburgh." The song compares racial tensions in the US with those in apartheid-era South Africa, implying that the US was not too far ahead in race relations.In 1993, he signed to TVT Records and released Spirits, an album that included the seminal track "'Message to the Messengers". The first track on the album criticized the rap artists of the day. Scott-Heron is known in many circles as "the Godfather of rap"[7][8] and is widely considered to be one of the genre's founding fathers. Given the political consciousness that lies at the foundation of his work, he can also be called a founder of political rap. Message to the Messengers was a plea for the new generation of rappers to speak for change rather than perpetuate the current social situation, and to be more articulate and artistic. On hip hop music in the 1990s, Scott-Heron later said in an interview:

Later years

Gil Scott-Heron released poems as songs, recorded songs that were based on his earliest poems and writings, wrote novels and became a hero to many for his music, activism and his anger. There is always the anger - an often beautiful, passionate anger. An often awkward anger. A very soulful anger. And often it is a very sad anger. But it is the pervasive mood, theme and feeling within his work - and around his work, hovering, piercing, occasionally weighing down; often lifting the work up, helping to place it in your face. And for all the preaching and warning signs in his work, the last two decades of Gil Scott-Heron's life to date have seen him succumb to the pressures and demons he has so often warned others about.

In 2001, Gil Scott-Heron was sentenced to one to three years' imprisonment in New York State for possession of cocaine. While out of jail in 2002, he appeared on the Blazing Arrow album by Blackalicious. He was released on parole in 2003. On July 5, 2006, Scott-Heron was sentenced to two to four years in a New York State prison for violating a plea deal on a drug-possession charge by leaving a drug rehabilitation center. Scott-Heron's sentence was to run until July 13, 2009. He was paroled on May 23, 2007.[11] The reason given for the violation of his plea was that the clinic refused to supply Scott-Heron with HIV medication. This story led to the presumption that the artist is HIV positive.[12][13]

After his release, Scott-Heron began performing live again, starting with a show at SOBs in New York on September 13, 2007. On stage, he stated that he and his musicians were working on a new album and that he had resumed writing a book titled The Last Holiday, previously on long-term hiatus, about Stevie Wonder and his successful attempt to have the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. declared a federally recognized holiday in the United States.

He was arrested October 10, 2007, the day before a scheduled (but ultimately cancelled) second SOBs performance, on felony possession of cocaine charges. However, he has continued to make live appearances at various US venues during the course of 2008 and 2009, including further appearances at SOBs in New York. He has also stated in interviews that work is continuing on his new album, which will consist mainly of new versions of some of his classic songs plus some cover versions of other artists' work.

Having originally planned to publish The Last Holiday in 2003, before it was put on hold, Canongate Books now tentatively intend to issue it in January, 2011. The book was due to be previewed via a website set to be launched on April 1, 2009, but this did not appear.

Mark T. Watson, a student of Scott-Heron's work, dedicated a collection of poetry to Gil titled Ordinary Guy that contained a foreword by Jalal Mansur Nuriddin of The Last Poets. The book was published in the UK in 2004 by Fore-Word Press Ltd. Scott-Heron recorded one of the poems in Watson's book Black & Blue due for release in 2008 as part of the album Rhythms of the Diaspora by Malik & the OG's on the record label CPR Recordings.

Gil Scott-Heron released his new album I'm New Here on independent label XL Recordings on February 9, 2010. Produced by XL label owner Richard Russell, 'I'm New Here' is Scott-Heron's first studio album in sixteen years.The pair started recording the album in 2007, with the majority of the record being recorded over the last twelve months with engineer Lawson White at Clinton Studios in New York. In 2009, a new Gil Scott-Heron website, gilscottheron.net, was launched with a brand new track 'Where Did The Night Go' made available as a free download from the site.

In April 2009 on BBC Radio Four poet Lemn Sissay [5] presented a half-hour documentary on Gil Scott-Heron entitled Pieces of a Man [6]. Having interviewed Gil Scott-Heron in New York a month earlier, Pieces of a Man was the first UK announcement from Gil of his forthcoming album and return to form.

In November 2009 the BBC's Newsnight interviewed Gil Scott-Heron for a feature titled 'The Legendary Godfather of Rap Returns.'[14] Meanwhile, I'm New Here has already started to pick up substantial critical acclaim with The Guardian newspaper's Jude Rogers declaring it one of the next decade's best records.[15] The first single from the album will be Me And The Devil which is set for release on February 22, 2010. It was debuted by BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe as his "Hottest Record In The World", along with other specialist DJs such as Gilles Peterson and Benji B.

Personal life

Scott-Heron was once married to actress Brenda Sykes, with whom he has a daughter, Gia Scott-Heron.[16]

Influence

The music of Scott-Heron's work during the 1970s influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. He has been described by music writers as "the godfather of rap" and "the black Bob Dylan".[17] On his influence, a music writer later noted that "Scott-Heron's unique proto-rap style influenced a generation of hip-hop artists".[1] The Washington Post wrote that "Scott-Heron's work presaged not only conscious rap and poetry slams, but also acid jazz, particularly during his rewarding collaboration with composer-keyboardist-flutist Brian Jackson in the mid- and late '70s."[18] The Observer's Sean O'Hagan discussed the significance of Scott-Heron's music with Brian Jackson, stating:

Scott-Heron's influence over hip-hop is primarily exemplified by his definitive single "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," sentiments from which have been explored by various rappers, including Aesop Rock, Talib Kweli and Common. In addition to his vocal style, Scott-Heron's indirect contributions to rap music extend to his and co-producer Brian Jackson's compositions, which have been sampled by various hip-hop artists; among the most notable is rapper/producer Kanye West, who has sampled Scott-Heron and Jackson's "Home is Where the Hatred Is" and "We Almost Lost Detroit" for his song "My Way Home" and the single "The People," respectively, both of which are collaborative efforts between West and Common. Scott-Heron, in turn, has acknowledged West's contributions, sampling the latter's 2007 single "Flashing Lights" on his latest album, 2010's I'm New Here. West has gone on to name Gil Scott-Heron, among others, as a major influence on his own latest offering, A Good Ass Job. "We Almost Lost Detroit" has also been sampled by Brand Nubian member Grand Puba ("Keep On"), Native Tongues duo Black Star ("Brown Skin Lady"), and underground notable MF DOOM ("Camphor")[19]. Furthermore, Black Star MC Mos Def has sampled Scott-Heron's "A Legend in His Own Mind" on the Q-Tip-featuring song "Mr. Nigga," and producer Dr. Dre (some of whose early G-Funk compositions mirror Scott-Heron's musical style in both texture and sentiment, specifically "Lil' Ghetto Boy," which in fact samples Scott-Heron contemporary Donny Hathaway) recorded the song "Blunt Time," on which former Death Row Records rapper RBX interpolates the opening lyrics from Scott-Heron's recording "Angel Dust."

Filmography

• Black Wax (1982). Directed by Robert Mugge.
• Word Up (2005). Directed by Malik Al Nasir & Shirani Sabaratnam for Fore-Word Press UK.
• The Paris Concert (2007).

References

1. ^ a b Azpiri, Jon. Review: Pieces of a Man. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2009-07-31.
2. ^ Dacks, David Pionnerring Poet: Gil Scott-Heron at Exclaim! March 2010.
3. ^ Gil Scott-Heron Jazz Man - Biography
4. ^ "allmusic {{{ Gil Scott-Heron > Discography > Main Albums }}}". All Media Guide, LLC.. http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0pfoxqwgldhe~T2. Retrieved 2008-07-09. 
5. ^ Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (1995-10-10). Spin Alternative Record Guide (Ratings 1-10) (1st edi. ed.). New York, NY: Vintage Books. pp. s. 267–268. ISBN 0679755748. OCLC 32508105. http://books.google.com/books?id=50cEAAAACAAJ&dq=spin%27s+alternative+record. Retrieved 2008-07-17. "his finest work" 
6. ^ Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians Holloway, Ron (Ronald Edward) Jazz.com [1]
7. ^ Economic "HIS-story" à la Gil Scott-Heron Growth is Madness!
8. ^ Gil Scott-Heron Jazz Man - Biography
9. ^ Salaam, Mtume ya, and Salaam, Kalamu ya Breath of Life Presents - Gil Scott-Heron & His Music: Reviews by Mtume ya Salaam & Kalamu ya Salaam. ChickenBones: A Journal. Retrieved on 2008-08-23.
10. ^ The Anger and Poetry of Gil Scott-Heron by Fairfax New Zealand, February 10, 2010
11. ^ Inmate Information NYS Department of Correctional Services for Scott-Heron
12. ^ [2]
13. ^ [3]
14. ^ Stephen Smith (16 November 2009). "The Legendary Godfather of Rap Returns". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8362518.stm. Retrieved 2010-01-22. 
15. ^ Jude Rogers (19 November 2009). "Best of the next decade: Gil Scott-Heron's I'm New Here". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/nov/19/gil-scott-heron-new-here. Retrieved 2010-01-22. 
16. ^ Brief Gil Scott-Heron Biography Referenced 2-6-2010.
17. ^ a b O'Hagan, Sean. Gil Scott-Heron: The Godfather of Rap Comes Back. The Observer. Retrieved on 2010-02-11.
18. ^ Harrington, Richard. "Review: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". The Washington Post: June 30, 1998.
19. ^ [4]

External links

• Official Web Site
• Gil Scott-Heron at Discogs
• BBC biography of Gil Scott-Heron
• Text and Audio of "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
• Interview with Gil Scott-Heron from December 11, 2007
• Review of Gil Scott-Heron's album I'm New Here
• A Surprising Record From Gil Scott Heron - audio report by NPR

Video

• "Me And The Devil" - official video by XL recordings
• "Where Did The Night Go" - official video by XL recordings