Winter in America

Beautiful

Righteous and groovy. Love the Rhodes vibes. Late night feel.

Great album, Scott Heron is a one of one

Woah. I am in a loss of words. Literally. My bad brochacho.

Better than Coldplay

Pretty chill and smooth jazz. Lovely and relaxing.

Winter In America is one of the few albums on this list that, for some reason, is not available on Spotify.
In any case, the collaboration between Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson was clearly inspiring, even if I don't think the “minimalist production” was the best possible approach—in my opinion, the vocals in particular would have benefited from some post-production work in places.
In any case, the result sounds almost like a live recording and, stylistically, lies somewhere between jazz and soul in my opinion.
As for the songs, “The Bottle” is a very remarkable piece (and the only single from this album), while the rest is mostly easy listening.
Not bad!

My introduction to Gil Scott-Heron was through the song Me and the Devil off his more recent album I'm New Here. I had that album in my rotation for a long time, but it's been a while since I've given it a listen.

I absolutely love the jazzy electric piano riffing with Gil Scott-Heron's heavy soulful singing on Winter In America. The Bottle is a killer track; the flute soloing is amazing. The spoken word blues/jazz poetry of H2O Gate Blues is also phenomenal and is sadly incredibly relevant even with its outdated references.

Also, I don't want to diminish Winter In America, but I do have to say that I'm surprised Pieces of a Man isn't in the list as the track the Revolution Will Not Be Televised is absolutely amazing and rather important historically as it’s considered one of the predecessors to modern hip-hop.

I think Winter In America is going to lead to a bit of a deep dive into Gil Scott-Heron's work again today.

All too appropriate.

Even if this is a full band, it still feels pretty stripped down and raw. Clearly political, and pretty discordant between feel and lyrics.
A few great tracks, and quite a bit of competent filler.

The Bottle was a big part of my dissertation. Great, important, influential song. Album gets a bit meandering, but everything remains honest and interesting and purposeful. Wish I had more time to listen to these outside work.

This was quite a surprise to me, because I fully expected to really like this, but for some reason it didn't quite vibe with me. Liked the spoken word H2Ogate Blues more than the rest. I liked elements of the others (including some nice bass), but the whole wasn't quite what I was expecting. Low three.

Well shit, this is just spellbinding, like this is the sort of thing that could probably make you a better person. I like jazz, but sometimes I sort of have a mostly intellectual connection with it, which frankly, may be a way to miss the point. But Winter In America, whether because it brings in some other influences, or because of the incredible poetry, or just because it is fucking immaculate art just completely shatters this sort of wall. While I understand this album is ultimately about The Black Experience in America, which I can safely say I am outside of, I honestly think the lens used here reveals some more universal truths about America in its many forms. I mean just listen to H2OGate Blues, Gil Scott-Heron is getting to the heart of some serious shit here. And frankly, a lot of it feels awfully familiar in a modern American environment. Gil Scott-Heron is really a genius poet and thinker and the evidence is all over this thing. This album is dense: it's juggling bitterness and tentative hope, it's exploring the patterns that America runs on, and often it brings it all to a deeply small scale, getting into how structural, social issues are almost always kind of people issues in a way. I really don't feel like I can analyze it effectively. But, I will say I can *feel* this thing, and it seems like it wants more than anything to be felt. And honestly, for as much as I've talked about Gil Scott-Heron, Brian Jackson is co-billed for a reason. His playing is incredible, he lays stuff down for Gil Scott-Heron without forgetting to get a word in himself: He is clearly a fantastic musician with incredible compositional chops. I have few if any complaints, and for a cold listen, I feel pretty confident about what I'm hearing here, I'm giving it a 5.

*beep*

I'm sorry, but the government you have elected is inoperable.

This was very calming, but a bit boring at times. Anyway, great composition

Beautiful album. I'm surprised this isn't more well known - I had only heard The Bottle until now. You can see the roots of hip hop in this and Pieces of a Man. Lovely jazz piano and flute too. Had to listen to it on YouTube unfortunately, but I will look into getting a copy of this asap.

Ok. Not as much spoken word as I expected. 2/5

actually really liked this

Great protest album - solid jazz fusion

I have to be honest - I'm not feeling it. Wikipedia says "Winter in America has been recognized by music writers as one of the prominent examples of early rap" and I'm sorry, what? This just sounds like smooth jazz - where the fuck are people getting "early rap" Music writers love to group black artists together, even if they're completely different genres.

Anyway, I don't love it. I feel bad giving it two stars, but I never want to listen to it again, and that's kind of my litmus test.