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Which leads me to the conclusion that the more of a meditative state you can get into, the more of an active passage thing you can get into, where you let the music flow through you, you let the spirits, you let the ancestors tell you what to do, and you don't plan it or obsess over it, you can just let it go. You've already studied. I've studied for almost forty-something years now. If you don't know what you're gonna do now, then the best thing you can do is just to let it go. When you let it go, the spirits and the energy of the music comes through and allows you to be the instrument. I don't play an instrument. I am an instrument.
--Brian Jackson |
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Photo: Brian Jackson
Brian is also playing with the rejuvenated Digable Planets as a special guest keyboardist. Enthusiastic about the collaboration, he states, "The first member of Digable I met was Lady Bug. What I told her was I thought it was a fantastic connection because I see her as a link between the generation of spoken word that Gil and I represent and the generation of spoken word that's represented by some of the younger artists today. What I always wanted to do is make sure that bridge, that link, is complete. That's why I reach out all the time to younger artists who are interested in the same depth of expression we were."
Gil-Scott Heron's Reflections album |
For most, Brian's decade-plus collaboration with Gil Scott-Heron will always be their primary picture of him. Combining sizzling rhythms, limber melodies, and pointed, emotion-drenched lyrics, the pair almost single-handedly created modern soul music and gave hip-hop its first serious leg up. Despite a tumultuous relationship in recent years, Scott-Heron and Jackson possess a miraculous rightness that doesn't come along too often, and it hit on all cylinders from the very beginning.
"There was no breaking-in period," Brian tells us. "We didn't have time because we were at Lincoln University, and there was a talent show coming up for homecoming." Jackson could play "God Bless The Child," which Gil wanted to perform. Gil was impressed by that, and Brian was impressed with Gil's songwriting. "We liked the way things flowed, and the next thing you know, we're in a band called Black And Blues," continues Jackson. "By the time he'd recorded Small Talk at 125th and Lenox (Gil's debut) we had more than an album's worth of material, but Gil had to prove he could move a couple of units before Bob Thile (legendary jazz producer and RCA label chief) would put out the money to hire studio musicians to pull this off. Well, it happened, and the next thing you know, we're in the studio with Ron Carter (with whom Brian is working on a new project involving Headhunter Mike Clark), Hubert Laws, and Bernard Purdie doing our first album, which would be Pieces Of A Man."
"It just never stopped. Whenever I was around a piano or Gil was around a piano or a piece of paper and a pencil, things would just flow. It's always been like that. There's been a certain magical connection between he and I. Even more recently in the times that haven't been so good, when we get together to play music, all those things are just washed away by the purity of the energy and the spirit behind the music and behind what we're really about."
They parted ways in the mid-80s but came back together to perform again recently.
"I know there were many years I didn't speak with him, didn't have contact with him, and we didn't actually attempt to connect. And then one day, out of the blue, he calls up and we began a dialog about some things that needed to happen on a business level, which never did happen. It sure was nice playing with the band again and traveling around from 1998 'til Gil went missing last year. We were going to do a show in Chicago, and everybody was there waiting for him. We got a call from a legal aid attorney saying he'd been arrested at the airport. Soon after that was the last time I spoke to him."
Gil-Scott Heron |
"Things are kinda strained now," offers a sad Jackson. "Gil is kinda' distant from everybody. He has distanced himself, in one way or another, from just about everybody who cares about him. I think maybe the best explanation might be to go to the lyrics of 'Home Is Where The Hatred Is,' and ask yourself why he chose to redo that song and call it 'The Other Side.' Maybe there's an answer in there somewhere."
"Prior to that time I'd been going up to his house, and we'd been talking about doing some new cuts," comments Jackson. "Even though the relationship was strained, I think we were trying to get things back in order. Whether or not we performed together any more or wrote another song together, I think, at least it was important to me, to try and deal with some of the issues that caused us to move further and further apart. I'm not sure we ever found a full resolution, but ultimately I think the drugs got in the way. Unfortunately, he's totally unavailable to me at the moment, and I don't think anybody really knows where he is."
Beyond any of their troubles, Jackson still beams with respect for Gil Scott-Heron's work as an artist.
"As a writer, as a poet, I'd put Gil right up there with Langston Hughes. He's a classic American writer. As far as I'm concerned, he needs to go down as one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century. Without a doubt, the man had a way with words – a succinct style that could say more in one sentence than most people could say in ten pages (see the track "Pieces Of A Man," one of the finest short stories ever composed, for empirical proof)."
One thing is certain, hip-hop has dipped liberally into the waters Gil and Brian stirred in their time together. One would be hard pressed to find an early rap record that didn't borrow a beat, riff, or line from the duo, and today you can hear their influence in acts like Jurassic 5 and the Blackalicious crew, including Lyrics Born, Lateef, and Gift of Gab. For his own part, Jackson is easy going about others using his work but with a caveat.
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