Search - Gil Scott-Heron :: Reflections

Listen to B-Movie NOW (2006)

Nic | Paris, France | 05/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Americans are living the consequences of what Mr. Scott-Heron warned of more than twenty years ago.



"Mandate, my ass"



"What has happened is that, in the last twenty years America has changed from a producer to a consumer"



"We used to be a producer ... and now we are consumers, finding it difficult to understand"



"Natural resources and minerals will change your world"



Unfortunately, most available versions of this song cut the extended outro, the survival mantra :



"this ain't really your life; it ain't nothing' but a movie""

"This ain't really life"

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 02/16/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Artists who stagnate never really do it for me-- there's something to be said for constant evolution, even if the sound evolved to is not something that I care for-- I find that over time it seeps in anyway and I find myself enjoying the material.



Case in point-- Gil Scott Heron's "Reflections". Scott-Heron's '70s work was rooted heavily rooted in jazz sounds-- things close to my heart. In the '80s, he seemed more heavily influenced by funk and Motown and his sound changed. When I first heard "Reflections", I hated it, but I respected evolution. Time has passed and suddenly the album is growing on me.



The album opens with a pair that fit this sound-- "Storm Music" is a bit lifeless, limping along in reggae rhythms and "Grandma's Hands" is seeped in funk and D.C. slap bass, although "Is That Jazz?" ends up being a revelation-- a modern update on jazz and '70s fusion, with a fantastic lyric about what makes jazz and a superb fretless bass solo from Robert Gordon. Add to this a gun control statement ("Gun") rooted deep in electric Motown sounds and a couple spoken word pieces ("Morning Thoughts" and the fantastic anti-Reagan statement, "'B' Movie") and you almost have a fine album. What's missing is a completely brilliant statement, and in this case it's made in a cover of Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues". As frank a discussion of inner city life as Scott-Heron could have written himself, one master performing another with a brilliant trumpet solo courtesy of Kenny Sheffield works out to be the centerpiece the album needs.



I don't quite think it reaches the heights that "From South Africa to South Carolina" does, but "Reflections" is a fine album, recommended for fans of Scott-Heron."

Progressive and poignant

Philip Ames | BROOKLYN, NY USA | 11/04/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"i first found this LP for a pound in a junk bin. i'd heard of Heron and figured that a pound was a safe bet. what i got was a hundred times the value of my money. and definitely worth the much higher price i now have to pay!



no other record of his connected with me as fully as this LP did, it is still a superb record and the CD version has done nothing to suck out any of the vinyl quality (thank God!). Grandma's Hands is one of the most evocative love songs i have ever heard and i still treasure it deeply.



my only disappointment was the song Morning Thoughts, which now just seems turgid and dull. Other than that, the songs are exceptional, the cover versions - I favor this version of Inner City Blues over any other (sorry, Mr Gaye) - are spot on. All in all, worth every cent that it's cost me to date."