About

‘Collaboration is stimulating, it’s in my blood.’ Thus speaks Brian Jackson and his philosophy for making music and it’s indeed collaboration that runs through this amazing album of reimagined and revisited songs from his artistic past. Featuring artists such as Black Thought, Rahsaan Patterson, Josh Milan, Moodymann, Omar, J. Ivy and others and being produced by Masters At Work, ‘Now More Than Ever’ takes the enduring classic tracks that Brian Jackson made with Gil Scott-Heron and places them in the now over nineteen tracks and across a triple vinyl LP, Double CD and digital release.

Songs such as Lady Day & John Coltrane, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Home Is Where The Hatred Is, Winter In America, The Bottle and more soundtracked a generational movement of Black Consciousness in the 70s and 80s. As Brian says, ‘This album is one way to connect to what we were about in the 70s; we were about change and this is part of the lineage of resistance. These tracks mark a period of time when resistance was essential and now a younger generation has picked them up.’

‘As young men in their twenties, we (Brian and Gil) just wrote about what we saw and were feeling and people interpreted these songs in ways we never thought about but as Sly stone said the song comes from me but it’s for you.’ This statement from Brian perfectly sums up the collaborative nature of Now More Than Ever and the relevance of these songs in a contemporary perspective can be perfectly summed up by the songs themselves.

The formidable stable of artists contributing to each track and the excellent production from Louie Vega and Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez make this album an event in itself. However, these songs are there to be enjoyed as a canon or as individual masterpieces, whether on the dancefloor or on a home system. — (via Label)

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Brian Jackson has always been an enigma. The multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger was Gil Scott-Heron's songwriting and recording partner on nine albums, and the architect of the Midnight Band's sound melding poetry, soul, jazz, blues, and funk. Following their split, he kept a low profile. Later he played sessions with everybody from Roy Ayers and Oneness of Juju to Kool & the Gang and Charnett Moffett. Along the way he cut his own records, including 2021's instrumental Brian Jackson JID008 and 2022's This Is Brian Jackson. 2026's Now More Than Ever, is a 19-track multi-disc set that revisits his material with Scott-Heron (the cover mimics the 1976 album It's Your World). It was cut in collaboration with New York production duo Masters at Work (Louie Vega and Kenny Gonzalez), and a stellar cast of rappers, singers, and poets. Jackson erected the musical foundation for all of it. — (via AllMusic)

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— 19 tracks made with Gil Scott-Heron across 3LP
— Produced by Masters at Work (Kenny Dope and Louie Vega)
— Featuring Black Thought, Rahsaan Patterson, Josh Milan, Moodymann, and more

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Label: BBE
Format: 3 x Vinyl, LP, Album
Released: 2026
Genre: Electronic, Jazz, Funk / Soul
Style: House

File under: Soul-Jazz / Jazz-Funk
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