A world premiere, Gil Scott-Heron by Brian Jackson & Yasiin Bey.

Sees jazz and soul luminary Brian Jackson join forces with hip hop legend Yasiin Bey to perform music that transformed a cultural landscape. Together, they celebrate the revolutionary artistry of Gil Scott-Heron, whose voice and vision continue to inspire generations.

Gil Scott-Heron was an American jazz poet, musician, and author whose work fused spoken word with blues and jazz traditions. His writing drew deeply from Harlem Renaissance poetics, shaping a radical new language for Black political and cultural expression.

Brian Jackson is a jazz pianist, composer, and arranger whose inventive grooves and harmonic sophistication helped define the sound of conscious music in the 1970s. A teenage prodigy, Jackson met Gil Scott-Heron at Lincoln University in 1969. Over nine albums and countless tours, their collaboration fused jazz, funk, and poetry in ways that captured the spirit of the civil rights era while redefining what popular music could express. Jackson’s keyboard work, lush, fluid, and soulful, remains a masterclass in subtlety and depth.

Yasiin Bey has spent decades expanding the language and possibilities of hip hop. Emerging through era-defining collaborations in the late 1990s before forging a singular, boundary-pushing path, his work is marked by lyricism, political insight, and deep musicality. Moving fluidly between poetry and rhythm, Bey carries forward a lineage of socially conscious expression that continues to resonate across generations.

Though Gil Scott-Heron’s voice is absent from the stage, his spirit resonates through every note. 

Jackson’s compositions brought his words to life, creating a partnership that continues to influence music today. As the godfather of rap and a fearless commentator on society, Scott-Heron set the blueprint for artists like Bey. 

In this world premiere, Jackson and Bey return to the source of conscious music, offering audiences a rare chance to witness the creative force that shaped jazz-funk, soul, and the foundations of hip hop.

This is a celebration of artistry, activism, and the enduring power of music to move both mind and body. A world premiere at Melbourne’s RISING, Vivid Sydney, Brisbane’s Open Season & Adelaide's Thebarton Theatre.