Pieces of a Man by Gil Scott-Heron

Pieces of a Man was Gil Scott-Heron's first solo studio album, cut in April 1971 at RCA Studios in New York City with Bob Thiele producing and released that year on Flying Dutchman. After the bare spoken word of the live Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, here was the poet actually singing, with a full band behind him and real song structures to work with.

It also kicked off his long partnership with songwriter Brian Jackson, who played piano, and together they cook up a simmering stew of soul, jazz and funk, grooves loose enough to breathe and tight enough to hit. On "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" Scott-Heron rides a jazz-soul beat with his poem out front, and it's now counted a major influence on hip-hop. The album did modest business at first, but it became one of the label's best-selling LPs and one of his most acclaimed records, and RCA reissued it on CD in 1993.

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