Gil Scott-Heron -the Godfather of rap_m beat poet and maverick died yesterday at tghe age of 62.
He will be forever celebrated for "The revolution Will Not Be Televised" -the forearning to the revolution achieved but not arrived, but even this year released an album We're New here that was nothing if not eclectic. Ferailed by a vicous drug addiction, who knows what sort of a career he would have had a longside the rap birthers without it. In the 21st Century he returned to us and in Match, 2010, writer Bobby Sciortino review Scott-Heron in concert for rock nyc. We repost it here:
I went to Blue Note Jazz Club in the Village last night to see Gil Scott-Heron. I had never heard of him until Monday, when my friend suggested going. I did my due diligence and read his bio, listened to some of his previous work, and decided it would worth it to check out. He performed over a couple of days at Blue Note, and officially it was his new album release promotion.
Scott-Heron has had some trouble with the law and drugs over the last few years, and has not released new work since his 1994 album Spirits. That is a 16 year hiatus, not something to take likely. However, the initial reaction from the critics to his new album “I’m New Here” has been overall positive. I myself have not been able to get a copy yet and give it a listen, so I have no say on the matter.
I went to the 10:30 performance on Wednesday night with 3 friends. We were at the bar, so if you are familiar with Blue Note, we were a bit farther from the stage than we would have liked. However, the venue is small enough that you can enjoy the music from pretty much anywhere.
Gil came out about 10:50 and proceeded to regale the crowd with some stories and various thoughts he wanted to share. Not what I expected, but quite interesting. The man has associated with many of the greatest Jazz, Blues, and R&B artists of the last 30 years, such as Dizzy Gillespie and Stevie Wonder. Just after 11pm he finally sat down at the electric piano and began playing at singing. He has an exceptionally pleasant voice, rich and bold, though a bit scratchy in a good way.
The genre is difficult to categorize, as he does poetry, spoken word soul, fusion, soul and jazz-funk, proto-rap. His latest album even incorporates some elements of electronica. In some circles he is even considered to be the “Godfather of rap” because of his political consciousness and spoken word soul style. He continued to perform until nearly midnight, accompanied by another pianist and a harmonica player. As I am not intimately familiar with his songs, I couldn’t identify them, but I enjoyed them immensely.
Scott-Heron’s jazzy electric piano along with his soulful raspy voice were a pleasure to experience live.