Critics in the early 1970s called Gil Scott-Heron the most important Black voice since Martin Luther King Jr. and described him as a black Bob Dylan. “His poetry is with much muscle, with stiletto humor, with street talk, much of it justifiably angry and accurate,” the New York Times wrote in 1975, marveling at the angry man from the Bronx.
No wonder that decades later Scott-Heron was celebrated as the “Godfather of Rap”. Born in Chicago, the musician, poet and pugnacious activist for human rights himself lived for years in the Bronx. Returning to his black roots, he died May 27, 2011, in New York’s urban district Harlem.
His legacy includes a fantastic concert Gil Scott-Heron gave with his band at the Schauburg Theater in Bremen (Germany) on April 18, 1981. The technicians of Radio Bremen were on site and recorded this ecstatic show, which will be released worldwide at the end of July as a 2CD and of course as download and streaming as well.
Gil's son Rumal Rackley on the release of this concert: "This album from a 1983 concert captures the spirit that permeated every performance throughout Gil Scott-Heron’s travels in the US and abroad. From Europe to Asia to Australia to Africa, his work resonates at the heart and soul level."
