2 Gil ScottHeron And Brian Jackson

Winter In America STRATA-EAST, 1974

You say: “Gil at his most elegiac and poetic.” Nicola Geddes, via Twitter

When Flying Dutchman refused to give equal billing to Jackson on his album sleeves, ScottHeron moved on, and signing to Strata-East for this sole album got his wish. Initially titled Supernatural Corner and conceived as a soundtrack to the experiences of an AfroAmerican Vietnam vet returning home, Winter In America evolved into a more broadbrush probing of humanity’s predicament. For the most part it’s plaintive, intimate, scored by Jackson’s gentle lapping of Fender Rhodes and piano, although The Bottle, Gil’s empathetic detailing of the life of an addict, is irrepressible funk with Jackson’s febrile flute blowing, and H2Ogate Blues is a castigating live ad-lib.