Midnight Band: The First Minute of a New Day

by Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson

Midnight Band: The First Minute of a New Day cover art
  • Type: Album
  • Released: January 1975
  • Label: Arista
  • Country: United States
  • Length: 51:40
  • Community rating: 3.96/5 from 3 ratings

Album Notes & Community Reviews

Released as the debut for Clive Davis's newly minted Arista Records, this album captures Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson backed by the expanded, ten-piece Midnight Band. The result is a lush, jazz-inflected progressive soul masterpiece, elevating Scott-Heron's searing sociopolitical poetry with muscular, deeply rhythmic funk arrangements.

Genres

Descriptors: Fusion, conscious, melodic, rhythmic, atmospheric, soulful, spoken-word, political, groove-laden, storytelling

Tracklist

  1. Offering (3:34)
  2. The Liberation Song (Red, Black And Green) (6:18)
  3. Must Be Something (5:16)
  4. Ain't No Such Thing As Superman (4:13)
  5. Pardon Our Analysis (We Beg Your Pardon) (8:01)
  6. Guerilla (7:49)
  7. Winter In America (6:09)
  8. Western Sunrise (5:16)
  9. Alluswe (5:04)

Credits

  • Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - primary artist
  • Eddie Knowles - bells, shaker [shakerai], congas, shaker [shakerai], cowbell
  • Barnett Williams - congas, percussion [genbe drum], congas, shaker [shakerai], cowbell, congas, shaker [shakerai], horn [antelope horn], percussion [gembe drum], bongos
  • Charlie Saunders - maracas, congas, cowbell, shaker [shakerai], cowbell, bongos
  • Brian Jackson - written-by, bells
  • Gil Scott-Heron - written-by

More from Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson: full discography