CUBA CLOWNING!

GIL SCOTT-HERON TODAY

Poet/Singer Gil Scott-Heron was the subject of my first published interview during the years of his hits of Winter in America, The Bottle, and Johannesburg. The years haven't been too kind to him due to drug use and subsequent jail time. This favorite of Howard Stern, who plays Gil's composition Whitey on the Moon often, is making a comeback of sorts. He'll be performing this month at NY's JVC Jazz Festival with the Mos Def Big Band; in a tribute to The Last Poets at NY's Schomberg Center with Amiri Baraka; and at Atlanta's Sugar Hill on the 5th of July. If his head is right, it would be prime time for his commentary. Wonder what he has to say about Obama.