The First Minute of a New Day
| The First Minute of a New Day | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson | ||||
| Released | January 1975 | |||
| Recorded | June–July 1974 D&B Sound (Silver Spring, Maryland) |
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| Genre | [blues], jazz, | |||
| Length | 47:52 | |||
| Label |
Arista A-4030 |
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| Producer | Gil Scott-Heron, Brian Jackson | |||
| Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Robert Christgau | B |
| Houston Press | (favorable) |
| Rolling Stone | (favorable) |
The First Minute of a New Day is an album by American jazz vocalist Gil Scott-Heron and keyboardist Brian Jackson, released in January 1975 on Arista Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in the summer of 1974 at D&B Sound in Silver Spring, Maryland. It was the follow-up to Scott-Heron's and Jackson's critically acclaimed collaboration effort Winter in America. The First Minute of a New Day was the first album to feature "Winter in America", the title track of Scott-Heron's previous album which was not featured on its original LP release. The album was reissued on compact disc by Scott-Heron's label Rumal-Gia Records in 1998.
The First Minute of a New Day served as Jackson's and Scott-Heron's debut for the Arista label and featured the eight-piece Midnight Band. With the Midnight Band and better financial support from Arista, the album benefited from a larger supporting cast and slicker production, in contrast to the sparse production on Winter in America. The Midnight Band would later be featured on following Scott-Heron albums, assisting in production and back-up instrumentation.
The songs on The First Minute of a New Day, which feature themes ranging from spirituality ("Offering") to revolution ("The Liberation Song") and oppression ("Winter in America"), contain free jazz melodies by the Midnight Band and funk influences. "Winter in America" featured themes of struggle and had Scott-Heron singing of social, geographical and environmental oppression. The album's only spoken word cut, also a live take, "Pardon Our Analysis" was a sequel to Winter in America's "H20 Gate Blues" as a criticism of President Richard Nixon's pardon, though this time the track did not feature a musical backing of any kind.
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