About this product

Product Identifiers

UPC4526180429197

eBay Product ID (ePID)4050180212

Product Key Features

Release Year1971

FormatCD

GenreJazz

ArtistGil Scott-Heron

Release TitlePieces of a Man

Additional Product Features

Number of Discs1

ReviewsRolling Stone (7/20/72, p.52) - "...Here is an album that needs discovering. It's strong, deeply soulful and possessed of that rare and wonderful quality in this time of hollow and obligatory `relevance'..." Uncut (p.132) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[H]is phrasing is movingly beautiful."

Additional informationPersonnel: Gil Scott-Heron (vocals); Johnny Pale (conductor); Hubert Laws (saxophone, flute); Brian Jackson (acoustic & electric pianos); Burt Jones (electric guitar); Ron Carter (acoustic & electric basses); Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (drums). Recorded on April 19 & 20, 1971. Includes liner notes by Gil Scott-Heron. Gil Scott-Heron's debut album presented a groundbreaking young poet of the streets, prefiguring hip-hop and bearing few precedents. While that record focused on vocal recitations and percussion, though, Scott-Heron's second album, PIECES OF A MAN, brought things to another level. Here Scott-Heron emerges as an affecting singer and melodist. With his musical aide-de-camp Brian Jackson, he proffers fully fleshed-out musical arrangements that encompass blues, jazz, and R&B. The striking ballad "Lady Day and John Coltrane" makes a particularly compelling case for Scott-Heron and Jackson's jazzier inclinations. At the same time, Scott-Heron's urgent proto-rapping is still present, as is his powerful social message, most notably on the rabble-rousing "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," which would become one of his signature songs. While his first album was an unforgettable bolt from the blue, PIECES OF A MAN is where Scott-Heron truly came into his own.