Woolwich Works brings together two of the country’s most distinctive and soulful voices and the 24-piece big band of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra to celebrate the work of legendary African-American poet, soul singer and author Gil Scott-Heron.

With a recording career spanning forty years, Gil Scott-Heron’s work and influence transcend continents and generations. With songs like The Revolution Will Not Be Televised and his substantial body of spoken word, he’s widely recognised as being one of the forefathers of modern rap and hip-hop, while tunes such as Lady Day and John Coltrane and The Bottle stand alone as timeless musical masterpieces.

This show takes some of the very best of an amazing body of work and reimagines it for a huge horn section, one of the world’s finest vocal talents and an outstanding orator with a voice like butter. It’s going to be absolutely banging.

“Anyone who wants to understand the black American experience of the 1970’s need only listen to a Gil Scott Heron album. A beautiful man with a beautiful poets soul. He did not die of drug overdose. He died of a broken heart that he toted the last 40yrs of his life. The world is richer for him having been in it” – Reginald D. Hunter