Thursday, June 11, 2009

Gil Scott-Heron - "Live at Berkeley" (1978)




"The Bottle" excerpt

I joined the DIME network to see what I could bring across to the blogosphere, and the first score is this wonderful show (in FLAC and MP3) from Mr Gil Scott-Heron in Berkeley, California in 1978. Thanks to Scott for pointing me at it.

This comes from an FM broadcast. An MP3 recording of it was posted at Sounds From the Edge of the Universe earlier this year by Miles from Birds With Broken Wings.

Essentially we've got the same band - minus one percussionist - that I wrote about in the 1977 Bottom Line show post. Six months after that, it's a pretty similar tracklist, but they're playing with formats and structures a little more. Allan Barnes' synthesiser lines are coming more to the fore, but without sacrificing Brian Jackson's jazzy rhodes tones.


"Home is Where The Hatred Is" excerpt

Gil characteristically opens with local issues, attacking recent cuts to the Afro-American Studies program at Berkeley, seamlessly swinging between polemic and poetry in a spoken piece called "Them Other Niggers". This leads straight into "The Spirit of the Drum", with Gil leading call-and-response vocals with the band, most of whom are on percussion.

From there on it's all-out latin, funk and jazz with not a moment of filler. 73 minutes of joy, hope you like this one!

Tracklist

01. Intro
02. Gil's Opening Speech
03. The Spirit of the Drum
04. Hello Sunday, Hello Road
05. 95-South (All of the Places We've Been)
06. Racetrack in France
07. We Almost Lost Detroit
08. Home is Where the Hatred Is
09. Band Introductions
10. Song of the Wind (aka Blow Wind Blow)
11. Band Introductions / The Bottle
12. Johannesburg

The Midnight Band

Gil Scott-Heron (Vocals, Guitar, and possibly Piano)
Brian Jackson (Keyboards, Flute)
Allan Barnes (Saxophone, Synthesizer)
Delbert Taylor (Piano, Trumpet, Congas, Flugelhorn, Vocals)
Barnett Williams (Congas, Percussion)
Siggie Dillard (Bass)
Reggie Brisbane (Drums)


Also at 'Never Enough Rhodes'

Gil Scott-Heron - "Live at the Bottom Line" (1977)

Gil Scott-Heron - "Live at the Village Gate" (1976)


Source

SBD or FM Broadcast (my guess is SBD to FM)
CD-R > EAC > WAV > foobar2000 > FLAC(level 5)

Upped at DIME by bootfreak82

Download WAV - MP3 

28 comments:

ish said...

Thanks Simon. I keep going back to the one you posted before so I'm looking forward to this one.

the jazzstronaut said...

Gonna grab this later...
Cheers Simon.

Camtronic4000 said...

great blog. thanks for this, can't wait to give it a listen. love "we almost lost detroit". i've recently started putting mixes up over at http://ochmonek.wordpress.com/mixes if you want to check them out. working on a tappan zee mix at the moment.

vesper said...

I was just on Dime and grabbed the Live at the Village Gate 1976, it's an incredible recording too!!

Goofy said...

Thanks Simon. Scott-Heron has always been an unread page for me. Now I don't have any excuses left.

Simon666 said...

Think we're in sync Vesper, was just listening to that as well :)

RevolutionaryBum said...

Hi there, First off Thanks for your time and efforts here, it's a great library of music !!! I'm also a late comer to actually delving into Mr. Scott-Heron's music & words. I've known of him for many years but life has it's own strange timing so it's not until recently that I've been drawn to investigate and to feel his sounds more adeptly... Thank You for that opportunity !

Simon666 said...

Thanks for comments guys.

Guess what ....
Just posted ANOTHER Gil Scott-Heron live show, this time the one that Vesper referred to - Live at the Village Gate in NYC in 1976. Come get it here

Wallofsound said...

Many thanks, Simon. I've been a GS-H fan for over 35 years now, but I never came across these particular live shows. They are great recording quality, and even greater musical quality. This was GS-H at his peak. These are going to have to be on rotation for the weekend.

display said...

Thanks a million, Simon.

tjaptjap said...

Huge thanks 4 the Gil Scott Heron posts

basso said...

Great posts. Thanks so much.
Seen him live in the late 90s. he was superstoned when entered the stage and everybody thought: wtf is going to happen and then the old man blew all of us away... never forget.....

Andy said...

Thanks Simon,top stuff.Don't forget to check out my show on George Jazz.

Unknown said...

You continue to shock and amaze with the stuff you bring to the table.

jw_natural said...

A brief note of Thanx for the many hours it takes to produce this wonderful site! I truly appreciate the music you make available.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, very very very nice! Greetings, Tom

Simon666 said...

Cross-promotion ! Here you go - Gil Scott-Heron – “Live at Glastonbury” (1986)

Simon666 said...

And another Gil bootleg! Gil Scott-Heron – “Live In Bremen” (1983) Come get it …

trakbuv said...

This looks a hottie - many of my favourites in one show. Many thanks for the offering.

Simon666 said...

hey trakbuv, thanks for all the comments, good to see you here :)

okra said...

I was fortunate to see GSH, back in the day... great show - so sorry that he struggled with his demons. We can certainly use his words today!

Check out his latest, "I'm New Here" .

Anonymous said...

Gil Scott-Heron - 92-08-02 Fox Theatre, Boulder, CO.rar

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=65WGTA9W

TMAT said...

Thanks for the rip! This is music that I work out to!

LADY ELIX said...

Great stuff. Also have a GSH birthday tribute mix. Check it out when you get a chance. Its on whosthatladymusicshow.blogspot.com

Peace be with you!

Lady E

http://whosthatladymusicshow.blogspot.com/2011/04/lady-elix-presents-sign-of-ox-gil-scott.html

Simon666 said...

Thanks Lady Elix, I'll come check it out :)
And thanks to all other commenters.

troods said...

And in flac too. Simon, you are The Man! Thank you.

dugg said...

Wow- what an absolutely amazing blog you have created here- a true treasury of music. i can't imagine how many hours you've put into this, but it's nice to see how many appreciators have taken the time to let you know...
when i was a kid, GSH's music thrilled me and scared me- now i have a nephew who's getting into him, and shows like these will help him see another side of GSH's amazing skills.

...and it's with artists like these that the caring of curators like you and the sharing of music like this will help the work of great artists like GSH live on...

respect!
d

Anonymous said...

lost this a while back so nice to see it still up here - many thanks for that, for all the other wonderful stuff you've put up over the years also.
hope you, and anyone else reading this, are safe and well.
cheers,
s.