Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘Pieces of a Man’ recut from original master tapes

Cut in an all-analogue chain this significant 1971 album from American jazz legend has never sounded better.

Gil Scott Heron’s ‘Pieces of a Man’ is one of the most significant albums in the history of Black American music. A beautifully sorrow album narrating the painful demise of a man whose world is caving in on him, evoking the shared Black experience in America at the time this record was produced, 1971. Confronted with institutionalised racism, hypocrisy on Capitol Hill, the divisive, Black-not-Black aspirations of the Afro-American bourgeoisie and oppression of Black liberation activists, Scott-Heron wrote this album both to champion the resilience of the Black American underclass and as a call for meaningful change. The album features many of Scott-Heron’s most important early songs including Home Is Where The Hatred Is, Lady Day and John Coltrane and The Revolution Will Not Be Televised featuring some of New York’s best jazz players of the time.

It was the first studio album to be recorded by Scott-Heron at RCA Studios in New York. For its 50th anniversary the original master tapes were handed over to Frank Merritt at The Carvery for them to be cut in an all-analogue chain. This 2-disc edition released on Flying Dutchman (Ace Records) has never sounded better. Grab your copy here.