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Gatefold exact repro reissue on 180 gram vinyl of Scott-Heron's definitive album, originally released in 1971.
"Pieces of a Man is an album of fine songs. Because most of the accompaniment by an excellent assemblage of musicians here calling themselves Pretty Purdie and the Playboys: (Purdie on drums; Ron Carter, an astounding bass man; Burt Jones, guitar, Hubert Laws, flute and sax, and Brian Jackson, Scott-Heron's collaborator, on piano) is in a jazz style, the songs have a loose, unanchored quality that sets them apart from both R&B and rock work. Scott-Heron sings straight-out, with an ache in his voice that conveys pain, bitterness and tenderness with equal grace and, in most cases, subtlety. Frequently the nature of the jazz backing is so free that the vocals take on an independent, almost a cappella feeling which Scott-Heron carries off surprisingly well. But what is most surprising about the album, especially after an exposure to the awkwardly fashionable poses of his poetry, is Scott-Heron's assurance and directness as a songwriter. There are occasional lines that seem to have slipped out of youthful poetry into mature songs ('Why should I subscribe to this world's madness?') and the long final cut, 'The Prisoner,' tends to get bogged down in its own 'heaviness.' But generally the material is tough and real, 'relevant' while avoiding, on the one hand, empty cliche and, on the other, fierce rhetoric, its own kind of cliché. -- Rolling Stone |
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ARTISTS
Ron Carter (bass); Brian Jackson (piano); Burt Jones (guitar); Hubert Laws (flute, saxophone); Bernard Pretty Purdie (drums); Gil Scott-Heron (guitar, piano, vocals) |
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