| Moving Target | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 1982 | |||
| Recorded | March–June 1982 | |||
| Length | 37:33 | |||
| Label | Arista | |||
| Producer | Malcolm Cecil, Gil Scott-Heron | |||
| Gil Scott-Heron chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Sounds |   [1] |
Moving Target is a studio album by American spoken-word poet and blues musician Gil Scott-Heron.
The album, released on Arista in 1982, was to be his last for more than a decade. On Moving Target, Scott-Heron and his "Midnight Band" recorded their "typical, tastefully jazzy R&B and funk grooves", though flavored with "more exotic sounds" and influenced by reggae (there are echoes of Bob Marley in some songs). The final song, the almost ten-minute long "Black History/The World", is in part a spoken-word performance by Scott-Heron ending with a "plea for peace and world change". [2]
The album, co-produced by Malcolm Cecil, [3] was released in September 1982 on LP (#204921), and issued as a CD in February 1997, under the same number. [4] Robert Christgau gave the album a B. [3]
All tracks composed by Gil Scott-Heron; except where indicated
Gilbert Scott-Heron was an American jazz poet, singer, musician, and author known for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson fused jazz, blues, and soul with lyrics relative to social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles. He referred to himself as a "bluesologist", his own term for "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues". His poem "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", delivered over a jazz-soul beat, is considered a major influence on hip hop music.
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Love Somebody Today is the fourth studio album by the American R&B vocal group Sister Sledge, released on March 16, 1980, by Cotillion Records. The album includes three singles: "Got to Love Somebody", "Reach Your Peak", and "Let's Go on Vacation", which all charted on the US Pop and R&B/Soul charts from late 1979 until 1980.
Malcolm Cecil was a British jazz bassist, record producer, engineer, electronic musician and teacher. He was a founding member of a leading UK jazz quintet of the late 1950s, the Jazz Couriers, before going on to join a number of British jazz combos led by Dick Morrissey, Tony Crombie and Ronnie Scott in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He later joined Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner to form the original line-up of Blues Incorporated. Cecil subsequently collaborated with Robert Margouleff to form the duo TONTO's Expanding Head Band, a project based on a unique combination of synthesizers which led to them collaborating on and co-producing several of Stevie Wonder's Grammy-winning albums of the early 1970s. The TONTO synthesizer was described by Rolling Stone as "revolutionary".
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Winter in America is a studio album by American vocalist Gil Scott-Heron and keyboardist Brian Jackson. It was recorded in September to October 1973 at D&B Sound Studio in Silver Spring, Maryland, and released in May 1974 by Strata-East Records. Scott-Heron and Jackson produced the album in a stripped-down fashion, relying on traditional African and R&B sounds, while Jackson's piano-based arrangements were rooted in jazz and the blues. The subject matter on Winter in America deals with the African-American community and inner city in the 1970s.
The First Minute of a New Day is an album by American vocalist Gil Scott-Heron, keyboardist Brian Jackson, and the Midnight Band—an eight-piece musical ensemble. It was released in January 1975 on Arista Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in the summer of 1974 at D&B Sound in Silver Spring, Maryland. It was the follow-up to Scott-Heron's and Jackson's critically acclaimed collaboration effort Winter in America. The First Minute of a New Day was the first album to feature "Winter in America", the title track of Scott-Heron's previous album which was not featured on its original LP release. The album was reissued on compact disc by Scott-Heron's label Rumal-Gia Records in 1998.
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Hollywood Be Thy Name is a live album by New Orleans R&B artist Dr. John. It was produced by producer Bob Ezrin. The recording venue, Willie Purple's Niteclub, was in reality Cherokee Recording Studios with a live audience.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is a compilation album by American poet Gil Scott-Heron. It was released in 1974 by Flying Dutchman Records and titled after Scott-Heron's 1971 song of the same name.
The Mind of Gil Scott-Heron is a 1978 album by spoken-word and rap artist Gil Scott-Heron. Like many of Scott-Heron's albums, the album's content primarily addresses political and social issues; however, The Mind of Gil Scott-Heron relies far more on his spoken word delivery than his other albums. Whereas much of the artist's earlier albums contained backup jazz-funk music from Brian Jackson, many of these tracks, which address contemporary issues such as Watergate, the pardon of Richard Nixon and the Attica Prison riot, are either live recordings or studio-recorded songs with little more than sparse drum backing or occasional instrumentation. "Jose Campos Torres" is about Jose Campos Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was arrested and then murdered and tossed into a bayou by two police officers in Houston in 1978, spurring the Moody Park Riot. Many of the tracks featured were included on previous Gil Scott-Heron albums.
We're New Here is a remix album by American vocalist Gil Scott-Heron and English music producer Jamie xx, released on February 21, 2011, by Young Turks and XL Recordings. A longtime fan of Scott-Heron, Jamie xx was approached by XL label head Richard Russell to remix Scott-Heron's 2010 studio album I'm New Here. He worked on the album while touring with his band The xx in 2010 and occasionally communicated with Scott-Heron through letters for his approval to rework certain material.
Spirits is the 1994 album by Gil Scott-Heron. The title track is an interpretation of the John Coltrane piece Equinox, and "The Other Side" is a live version of Scott-Heron's 1971 track "Home is Where the Hatred Is" with a new arrangement and many new verses that expand the original to nearly twenty minutes. It was later sampled for "Home" on the 2011 Jamie XX collaboration album, We're New Here.
Secrets is a 1978 studio album by American vocalist Gil Scott-Heron and keyboardist Brian Jackson.
1980 is a studio album by American singer-songwriter Gil Scott-Heron and keyboardist Brian Jackson. Their ninth album together, it was recorded from August to October 1979 during a period of creative tension between the two musicians and released in February 1980 by Arista Records.
Reflections is an album by the American poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron, released in 1981. It was his second album without Brian Jackson. Scott-Heron supported the album with a North American tour. The album peaked at No. 106 on the Billboard 200.
