Gilbert “Gil” Scott-Heron | April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011
___________________________________________________________
Courtesy photo
Chance-taker
Emotion voyager
Street-strutter
Contemporary Spirit
Untamed Proud Poet
Rough healer
He is His
He is His
— Miss Gwendolyn Brooks
A Very Long Post About the Extraordinary Artist and Poet and Storyteller and Singer and Philosopher and Influential Activist and Fighter of Inner Demons Gilbert Scott-Heron
Last week Gil Scott-Heron’s death came and went and then his name disappeared into the internet abyss. He seemed vaguely familiar to a lot of people but aside from his song-poem, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” few really knew his work. As it turns out, the ones who knew the most about him were not the consumers of music so much as artists and performers and writers and people who make things. Gil Scott-Heron was what people call an “artists’ artist.” It is a designation given only to the rare few who make art with a high degree of integrity despite whatever difficulties might plague them – poverty & racism to name a few ….
Read the rest of Michael Young’s tribute to Gil Scott-Heron at SF MOMA’s blog
Courtesy gilscottheron.net
GIL SCOTT-HERON, the poet and recording artist whose syncopated spoken style and mordant critiques of politics, racism and mass media in pieces like The Revolution Will Not Be Televised made him a notable voice of black protest culture in the 1970s, has died in Manhattan.
He was 62, a longtime resident of Harlem and reportedly HIV positive.
Scott-Heron often bristled at the suggestion that his work had prefigured rap. ”I don’t know if I can take the blame for it,” he said last year. He preferred to call himself a ”bluesologist,” drawing on the traditions of blues, jazz and Harlem Renaissance poetics.
– Ben Sisario, Sydney Morning Herald
__________________________________________________________
A courtesy clickable
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, 1970
Home is Where the Hatred Is, 1971
Winter in America, 1974
The Bottle, 1976
Racetrack in France, 1977
Thom Jurek’s AllMusic.com review of I’m New Here (2010), Gil Scott-Heron’s first and last new album in 16 years
“Gil Scott-Heron, whose music reflected black anger, dies at 62″ | Cristian Salazar, Washington Post/AP, May 29, 2011
© Anthony Barboza/Getty Images
Gil Scott-Heron in Harlem, 2010
“Gil Scot-Heron, Poet and Musician, Has Died” | Daoud Tyler-Ameen, NPR’s The Record, May 27, 2011
___________________________________________________________
May 31st, 2011 at 10:23 pm
I am grateful to the universe to have had the spirit and soul of Gil Scott-Heron for as long as we did. As long as we speak his name he will never be forgotten. Whenever, I hear your voice, your music my heart smiles. I LOVE YOU and welcome your spirit as I meditate and pray. I will see you next lifetime.