It's Your World

This 1976 ‘double-album’ (over 70 minutes) by Gil-Scott Heron, Brian Jackson and The Midnight Band – containing a mix of studio and live (in Boston) recordings – is just about the best thing I have ever heard from Scott-Heron’s musical 'ensemble’. It provides a rhythmically vibrant and intoxicating mix of soul, jazz, funk and blues and, whilst not being a flawless recording (the ‘lounge jazz’ version of Sharing here with Victor Brown’s vocals does seem rather out of place) it has so many great moments, including (of course) the 'cookin’’ (as Robbie Vincent would have said), extended live version of The Bottle, that I feel duty bound to raise a four and a half star rating to five.The added dimension to the music here, of course, like most Scott-Heron compositions, is the serious social and political comment. That’s not to say that the man’s tales here of urban deprivation and alienation are entirely without optimism, each of the title song and his version of Alice Coltrane’s Gospel Trane (renamed Trane) both use the subject of music as celebration – the latter also being infused with the 'straighter jazz’ tenor sax playing of Bilal Sunni Ali. Indeed, Ali’s playing is an album highlight, whether he be sounding like Coltrane/Shorter (or perhaps more like Gato Barbieri) on Trane or more in the Washington/Felder vein as on It’s My World and New York City (Scott-Heron’s tribute to his adopted home city and another album highpoint). Scott-Heron’s street vernacular is again to the fore on his soulful tale of elderly Floridian down-and-out in Possum Slim (Ed Myers) and the cha-cha-infused 17th Street, on which Jackson’s flute playing is typically impressive.But the album’s 'core’ is probably represented by its trio of extended compositions. First off, Scott-Heron’s spoken poem Bicentennial Blues, an excoriating (and frequently ironic) denunciation of his home country in which no-one is spared (national and local politicians, corporatists, the media and even 'apple pie’). Thence to Home Is Where The Hatred Is, a rhythmic powerhouse of a song, featuring some more excellent playing from both Ali and Jackson on electric piano and whose title is a bit of a giveaway ('God, did you ever try to turn your sick soul inside out so that the world could watch you die?’). But, best of all, is The Bottle, whose percussion (bongos) solos from Barnett Williams and Tony Duncanson really 'make’ the number and, along with Scott-Heron’s vocals and lyrics about the entrapment of alcoholism, turn the song into one of the very best of its genre (for me, alongside Alphonse Mouzon’s similarly rhythmical masterpiece By All Means).It really was a great shame (though perhaps not a surprise) that Scott-Heron never did achieve the popular recognition that his talent deserved.

A purchase following up on buying the Best of Gil Scott Heron, for the track Bottle. Featuring Brian Jackson, the music is good and the price was good too. Received promptly and arrived in perfect condition. I would recommend this album for anyone who wants to get into Heron's style and narrative.

Great album! Glad to have a recording of this after all my vinyl 'went missing'...

Average for gsh / bj during this period. The live bottle is standout.

good