Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces of a Man [ACE/BGP]

Why you'll love it

BGP's reissue puts the Flying Dutchman original on 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket, mastered at Sound Mastering and pressed in the EU. It holds two of Scott-Heron's best-known songs, and critics have long traced the roots of hip hop back to its opening track.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

Gil Scott-Heron had already published a novel and a book of poetry when producer Bob Thiele talked him into making records. His first, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, was spoken word over percussion. For the second, recorded at RCA Studios in New York on April 19 and 20, 1971, he sang, with a proper band behind him and a new writing partner, pianist Brian Jackson.

That band is quite something: Ron Carter on bass, Bernard Purdie on drums, Hubert Laws' flute fluttering over the top, and Jackson's piano holding it together. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" gets a lean flute, bass and drums arrangement; "Home Is Where the Hatred Is" later became a hit for Esther Phillips; "Lady Day and John Coltrane" is a joyful tribute to two heroes; and the title track tells a heartbreaking story through a son's eyes. Scott-Heron called the sound bluesology, the science of how things feel.

Vince Aletti championed it in Rolling Stone in 1972, and the album climbed onto the jazz chart in 1973, two years after it first came out. It has been gathering new listeners at the same unhurried pace ever since, and frankly we're in no rush either.

Also at Kops: more Gil Scott-Heron on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On BGP / Flying Dutchman (cat# HIQLP 007), a reissue of the 1971 album.