Gil Scott-heron
Were New Again-a Reimagining By Makaya McCraven

Fairly underrated album from one of the best African American R&B writers. VERY Good Album. Highly recommended

Ten years ago, Gil-Scott Heron's album I’m new here was released, marking the poet's return to a wider audience. Gil returned from nothing, from the valley of drugs, from prison. It is often thought that jazz is the music of air arrangements and rich moneybags. But real jazz is a protest, it is drug addiction and alcohol, it is religion, it is a radical change in cultural vectors, it is violence. Then, in the seventies, Gil-Scott and Last Poets laid the foundation for hip-hop and all modern black music, then they became forgotten poets from the basements. And in 2011, just before his death, an album of electronic arrangements of Gil's poems from the album I’m new here performed by Jamie xx shook the dance floors, what an irony. Ten years later, XL Records head Richard Russell decided to celebrate a round date by reworking the album, entrusted to popular percussionist MacCraven. Makaya approached the task decisively and the whole party of the International Anthem label was involved in the work: Jeff Parker, Brandee Younger, Ben Lamar Gay, Greg Spero. The devil knows what the essence of the whole undertaking is, probably an attempt to enter the same river twice, but partly it succeeded: the corpse of Gill-Scott Heron was dug up, shaken off the ground, painted with modern music and forced to recite their evil poems again, and hipstors were dancing around - jazzmen, playing bass, guitar, drums, looking at the great zombie with respect. Such is Romero in the flesh, gentlemen!