Winter in America (1974)

Winter in America is a studio album by American vocalist Gil Scott-Heron and keyboardist Brian Jackson. It was recorded in September to October 1973 at D&B Sound Studio in Silver Spring, Maryland, and released in May 1974 by Strata-East Records. Scott-Heron and Jackson produced the album in a stripped-down fashion, relying on traditional African and R&B sounds, while Jackson's piano-based arrangements were rooted in jazz and the blues. The subject matter on Winter in America deals with the African-American community and inner city in the 1970s.

The album serves as Scott-Heron and Jackson's debut release for Strata-East, following a dispute with their former label and departure. It proved to be their sole release for the independent jazz label. Upon its release, Winter in America featured limited distribution in the United States and quickly became rare in print. However, with promotional help from its only single "The Bottle", it obtained considerably larger commercial success than Scott-Heron's and Jackson's previous work. The album debuted at number six on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart and eventually sold over 300,000 copies in the United States.

While it was critically overlooked upon its release, Winter in America earned retrospective acclaim from several writers and music critics as Scott-Heron's and Jackson's greatest work together. Along with its critical recognition, it has been noted by several critics for its influence on derivative music forms such as neo soul and hip hop music, as many artists of the genres have been influenced by Scott-Heron's and Jackson's lyrical and musical approach on the album. On March 10, 1998, Winter in America was reissued on compact disc for the first time in the United States through Scott-Heron's Rumal-Gia Records.

Background

After leaving his former label Flying Dutchman Records, Gil Scott-Heron signed with the New York City jazz-based Strata-East label in early 1973, accompanied by jazz keyboardist and songwriter Brian Jackson, with whom he had worked on his previous studio albums, Pieces of a Man (1971) and Free Will (1972). While some sources allege this may have been over financial or creative differences, Scott-Heron maintained the switch was due to producer Bob Thiele's unwillingness to give Jackson co-billing. By the time of their move to Strata-East, Scott-Heron and Jackson had achieved underground notice among R&B and soul music listeners, particularly for the political and social nature of their music's themes, as well as Scott-Heron's emphasis on African-American culture and social plight in his compositions. Their musical fusion of jazz, blues, soul and spoken word styles helped them earn some notice among less-mainstream black music listeners at the time.

Social circumstances and musical events preceded Scott-Heron's and Jackson's signing with Strata-East. After the decline of popularity in traditional jazz forms during the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power movement, black pride and Afrocentric sentiment by many black Americans emerged. During 1970 to 1974, the Black Panther Party organization had been neutralized and pan-Africanism came into vogue. Following the free jazz and avant-garde breakthroughs of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, a creative stasis among most jazz musicians set in during the decade that led to an eclecticism where no style or conception of jazz maintained a zeitgeist among players. However, jazz fusion had gained mainstream notice for its stylistic adoption of rock and funk music, despite being the subject of controversy in jazz purist circles. Highlighted by the works of Roy Ayers, Herbie Hancock, and Donald Byrd, jazz-funk also emerged in response to the growing popularity of funk, leading to a trend of funk rhythms among jazz musicians formerly of the hard bop tradition as an attempt to reconnect with their African-American audience. This factored into the popularity of Scott-Heron's and Jackson's work in the black underground scene, with the former obtaining a reputation as a "street poet", while his work with Jackson served as an early recording of jazz poetry.

Scott-Heron had looked to expand on his socially conscious, pro black-oriented themes and independently produce a more conceptual album than his previous work had envisioned. Scott-Heron's and Jackson's search for more creative control over their recordings prompted them to sign with Strata-East Records. Established in 1971 by jazz musicians Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell, in response to major record companies' lack of interest in their recordings, the Strata-East label had become known for signing artists who recorded with diverse styles of jazz music with themes of social consciousness and black nationalism, as well as "minimal but eye-grabbing graphic design" for its releases.