Last deep sigh of a great poet

Gil Scott-Heron’s voice oscillated between the relentless harshness that lent weight to his pinpoint poetry about the often bleak life of African Americans in the United States, and the indulgent smoothness that was shaped by his love of jazz and soul.

However, on “I’m New Here”, the last deep sigh of this great poet and activist, she sounded different than before: worn out, almost emaciated. It seemed appropriate to Scott-Heron’s life in the new millennium. He spent several years in prison for his cocaine addiction. He carried the HI virus. And he hadn’t recorded any new songs for years.

Even “Spirits”, which was released in 1994 and cemented his status as the forefather of hip-hop, seemed like a final bow. But that only came 16 years later: “Me And The Devil”, “New York Is Killing Me”, “On Coming From A Broken Home” – the titles of the pieces revealed their confessional character.

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Scott-Heron conjured up his life themes with a strangely mild anger; he presented himself as a martyr of the American War on Drugs without showing any self-pity. Producer Richard Russell had visited Scott-Heron while he was still behind bars and introduced him to his concept of a fragmentary album with minimalist electronic rhythms to accompany his words.

These acoustic elements – dark, oppressive beats, sometimes just clapping hands – merged almost masterfully with the whiskey-soaked spoken-word crooning of the singer, which is always in the foreground here. A modern equivalent of gospel and blues. The Black Preacher hit the clubs.

The anniversary version, available since the beginning of February 2020, pays tribute to this most influential musical legacy of recent times with unreleased pieces.

Among them are new scores (“Winter In America”), an explanation of the origin of the term jazz and a cover of Richie Havens’ “Handsome Johnny”.

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