*For Gil...

"Winter in America."

It's been a week since musician Gil Scott-Heron has passed away at 62. Heron was certainly much more than a poet and songwriter whose infectious tunes just had a way of staying with you, even after nearly 30 years. He liked to call himself a "bluesologist" and I'd heard in one interview he said, "I'm just a piano player from Tennesee..." I'd written about his passing last week here on the blog, including the article that appeared in The New York Times. Listening to radio programs, reading some of the other testimonials to him and listening again to some of his past interviews, it is time to post this multimedia piece which I began putting together about six months ago. All the images were made here in Newburgh, NY, encompassing my coverage on the streets the past few years, although I'd had the soundtrack in my head for much, much longer.

I've wondered what Gil would think of the piece utilizing his words & music, but just a day or two ago I realized he'd already seen it - all over this country. ~cg.

Gil Scott-Heron. b. April 1, 1949 - d. May 27, 2011.

Recording artist Gil Scott-Heron performing at the Asbury Park Community Center in Asbury Park, NJ in 1993. Heron, sometimes known as the godfather of rap was born in Chicago on April 1, 1949, and raised in Jackson, TN. He died on May 27, 2011 in Harlem. He was 62. © www.chetgordon.com/blog

I just learned this evening that Gil Scott-Heron has died. He was one of the most influential poets and recording artists in the last 30 years or so, and one whose body of work I greatly admired. Some of his signature tunes and readings like "Johannesburg", "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", "The Bottle", "Winter in America", "Must Be Something", "Angel Dust", "Lady Day & John Coltrane", "We Almost Lost Detroit", and "The Bicentennial Blues" all spoke to social injustices in the inner cities and the hypocrisy he continually exposed in Washington, as well as Apartheid South Africa in the '70's. Although his work didn't get a lot of mainstream airplay, he had quite a following both here in the U.S., and like a lot of outspoken performers, internationally as well. His work is now routinely sampled by other artists. Nowadays he's been referred to as the "godfather of rap", which of course doesn't do justice to his musical genius and political awareness and activism. There would be no Chuck D and Public Enemy, Michael Franti, and I'm sure no Jay Z if there hadn't been a Gil Scott-Heron laying it down 30 years ago. In an interview on WFUV-FM, his reply was simply "I'm just a piano player from Tennessee and I'd rather they call me that, then call collect..." I had the opportunity to photograph Gil in a really small venue in Asbury Park, NJ back in the early '90's. If memory serves, this image was obviously made on a film camera back then, probably one of my old Nikon F-3's or even an f-4. I'm pretty sure the image was shot on T-Max P3200. I remember when he arrived in the community center's gym and there were probably all of 20 - 30 people there milling around with folding chairs set up. He mumbled a few inaudible things on stage to the band and proceeded to put on a knockout show. I'd also seen him perform in Atlanta, and a few other times in the NYC / metro area, including one of his regular stops at the club SOB's on Varick and West Houston Streets in lower Manhattan. ~cg.