Gil Scott-Heron – Nothing New – LP + DVD

XL Recordings

In November 2011, six months after Gil Scott-Heron sadly passed away, Richard Russell sat down to listen to the whole of Gil’s back catalogue – an incredible body of work encompassing 13 albums between 1970 and 1982, and then 2 more (including I’m New Here) that were made before Gil’s death. Listening to these 15 albums led Russell to revisit the acoustic piano versions of Gil’s old songs that they’d captured in those initial New York recording sessions. They were remarkable, entirely different versions to the originals, full of magic and simplicity.  They had in fact made the album they originally set out to.

“Nothing New” features these stripped down versions of some of Gil’s best (though not necessarily best known) songs, as well as excerpts of conversations between takes. The songs were chosen by Gil himself and it was only when compiling the album that Russell realised that each song was taken from a different album, Gil having carefully curated his selection.

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