Gil Scott Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011)

Keeping in time with the passing of writer, poet, singer, teacher, and activist Gil Scott Heron who sadly passed away last week aged 62 this edition of Jazz Cuts will be in honor of his passing and will also reflect some of Gil’s words, wisdom and music which was in such key. We hope you enjoy and once again we say R.I.P to one of the greats in the musical community.

“Jazz is dance music…Prince maybe one of the greatest Jazz musicians alive…”

We featured this video some weeks ago no, but here it is again in its full entirety….beautiful!

Definition of a poet? Gil breaks it down…As Richard Russel said last week “sometimes just listening to Gil could fill an entire album” true talk!

Gil Scott Heron - Think I'll Call It Morning

I’m gonna take myself a piece of sunshine
And paint it all over my sky
Be no rain..
Be no rain..
I’m gonna take the song from every bird
And make em sing it just for me
Bird’s got something to teach us all
About bein free, yeah
Be no rain..
Be no rain..

And I think I’ll call it morning
From now on
Why should I survive on sadness
And tell myself I got to be alone
Why should I subscribe to this world’s madness
Knowing that I’ve got to live on ( 3 times)
Yeah I think I’ll call it morning
From now on…

I’m gonna take the song from every bird
and make em sing it just for me
Cause why should I hang my head
Why should I let tears fall from my eyes
When I’ve seen everything there is to see
And I know there is no sense in crying
I know there ain’t no sense in cryin
Yeah I think I’ll call it morning
From now on
I’ll call it morning from now on, yeah
Cause there ain’t gonna be no rain
be no rain
be no rain
from now on…

The Gilles Peterson show this week also ran a tribute to Gil which you can listen to here if so inclined and also our friend Dj Mayhem compiled this mix recently which highlights some of Gil’s low key numbers and headphone jams. Along with these two we would like to host another special one and one that covers everything the others have left out. You can never have to much Gil Scott Heron in your life…Great selections as always from Mayhem, Peterson and Soul Jazz who keep the ball rolling…

R.I.P