Gil Scott-Heron, 1949-2011
“My end goal, besides integrating all the disparate elements as smoothly as possible, was to capture the stark, somber beauty of I’m New Here — a challenge because the album was so uniquely a piece of its own, an emotional open wound sonically unlike anything he’d recorded before. But I thought it came out well. As it so happened the mix wound up getting lost in the sauce in the run-up to I’m New Here’s release. With yesterday’s heart-breaking news of Gil Scott-Heron’s passing, I thought I’d post it up here to share, a brief homage to this legendary artist/activist/thinker, and his brilliant final project.”
— If you’re looking to listen to some Gil Scott-Heron (always a good idea, but particularly so today) you could do much worse than this mix that ego trip’s Chairman Mao made for XL Records last year. The Soul Sides site rounds up a few other tributes, too. It’s really a great, great loss.