Gil Scott - Heron: Nothing New

Stumbled on a recording from last year released only in the U.K. of stripped down performances of old songs by Gil Scott-Heron called Nothing New. I found myself playing it over and over again until as well as some of his 70’s LP’S until  late into the night.  I saw one of Gil’s last performances, a few months before he died in late Spring of 2011 at the Blue Note Jazz Club. I ran into him on the stairs on the way to the bathroom. "I love your music", I said. "Been listening to you all my life." He  just stared at me blankly, but not impolitely, and waited until I stepped aside.

When I was a teenager and Gil was a huge influence. He connected blackness and intellectual and political curiosity.  I think I might be a slightly different person if I had not discovered him and his music.