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Original Album Classics (Real Eyes/Reflections/Moving Target) (3CD set)

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A 3CD set of great later Gil Scott-Heron! Real Eyes is one his best albums from later years. The record's got some wonderful mellow cuts – the kind that send chills up our spine, and which remind us of Gil's stripped-down jazzy work on the album Winter In America. And in fact, Gil does an excellent remake of the classic track "Your Daddy Loves You" from that album – adding in a bit more production than on the original, but still doing the cut with a wonderfully soulful vibe. A few cuts have a razor sharp lyricism laid down over jazz funk arrangements – "The Klan" and "Waiting For The Axe To Fall" in particular – but the best numbers are wonderfully sophisticated jazzy numbers, like "Combinations" and "The Train From Washington". Reflections is often overshadowed by its hit – but the real strength of the album are the jazzy numbers, written in Gil's beautiful righteous style forged in the soul jazz underground of the 70s. These include the stellar "Is That Jazz?", a contemplative track about the future of the art form, a mellow version of Bill Withers' "Grandma's Hands", the moody "Storm Music", and "Gun", a good groover with a message about the right to bear arms. On Moving Target, Gil and the band hit a lot of nice mellow electric grooves with a good jazzy tip – not as angry as on earlier albums, but hitting a strongly soulful vibe which really picks up off the group's keyboard sound. The record's got a nice long political track called "Black History/The World", plus the groovy "Washington D.C.", and the cut "No Exit", which was issued as a single.  © 1996-2013, Dusty Groove, Inc.