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Reflections Import
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 Midnight Band at its Peak !, March 20, 2004
Crisp horn arrangements, Robert Gordon's wicked DC style slap bass... and two of Gil Scott Heron's all time greatest staples GUN and RE-RON on this... (IS THAT JAZZ smokes as well.) - - Though one of his "later" albums, this captures the Gil Scott Heron we know and remember (last time I saw him he didn't even have a drummer and seemed even less lucid that usual... hopefully things have changed for the better by now... but who knows... He was always so drunk he'd be falling off the bench to his Rhodes when I'd go see him at the CHESTNUT CABARET in Philly, but until 10 years ago was backed atleast by a wicked band to compensate !) - - This is a trip back to the good old days... (Who ever thought anyone would call the Reagan 80's good ?)
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Customer Reviews
 "This ain't really life", February 16, 2006
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.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Progressive and poignant, November 3, 2005
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.
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1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
four and a half, March 26, 2004
This would be a five star album if it weren't for two cover songs which are good but still covers,along with the b movie rap.the little bit of original actual music is top notch.Storm Music,Is That Jazz? and Gun are all great.By the way Re-Ron is not on this album.It was a single that came out two years later.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Man Ahead of H is Time., July 27, 2001
Purchased the orginial LP in the 70's. Love it during this period as a result of Gil style and believe that he was ahead of his time with his wording and approach to getting his message across, as well as, stating the facts of the time. By the way still have LP. I am a child of the 60's free love and all that. Lucky I made it until now. Oh, he was the man on the LP in Vietnam.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Gil's Great, May 28, 2001
Over twenty years ago I stumbled onto this (then) album. The music is great, the insights...even better. Some of his thoughts are even more haunting now that we can view them in retrospect. For example, "B-Movie" with its scathing, but melodic, indictment of America's reaction to Ronald Reagan. "Guns" with its discussion of...well...guns. "Inner City Blues" discusses being black in America in a way that attacks easy (and poorly thought out) white stereotypes.Gil puts up a mirror to our attitudes on foreign oil (suddenly...very timely--maybe even prescient), guns, being black in America.What he says is very honest, cannot be dismissed, and spares no-one.On top of all this, the music is...I believe...his best. I've purchased many of his albums (looking for this one). None (that I've found) seem to hit the level of excellence as consistently as this one.
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