Gil Scott-Heron's Tribute and Memoir

The Last Holiday, a memoir by the late Gil Scott-Heron will be issued January 16th by Canongate publishing house. You can listn to Scott-Heron read an excerpt from the book recorded in the early '90s at the Canongate website here. In the story he tells of learning John Lennon had been murdered, in 1980, while he and Stevie Wonder were on tour. 

The book's publishing date falls on Martin Luther King Day. That 1980 Stevie Wonder/Gil Scott-Heron tour was part of a campaign to have King's birthday named a national holiday. Which it now deservedly is. Watch a 2010 interview with Scott-Heron and Canongate's publisher Jamie Byng, below. 

Canongate also published Now and Then, a collection of Scott-Heron's poetry, in June.

Initially reported by The Wire, a tribute to Scott-Heron will take place in London on January 19 at Wilton's Music Hall, with Jamie xx, Ben Mellor, Kate Tempest, and Gilles Peterson. Jamie xx's Gil Scott-Heron remix album, We're New Here featuring track I'll Take Care Of You has received over 1 million views since it's release on youtube since it's release. 

RIP

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