New York City native Brian Jackson’s love for jazz and soul music saw him get a scholarship to music school, then to university, where he met the man who he would spend a decade writing, recording and performing with – US jazz and soul legend Gil Scott-Heron. On the flute and electric piano, Brian Jackson’s compositions were at the heart of nearly ten Scott-Heron albums, including the critically acclaimed Winter in America and Pieces of a Man.

The shy 16-year-old piano prodigy sensed a kindred spirit in the kinetic young poet. He wasn’t wrong. Together they’d make some of soul jazz’s most storied records and amongst them, timeless hits like ‘The Bottle’, ‘We Almost Lost Detroit’, ‘Lady Day & John Coltrane’, Jackson’s mellifluous Jazz-Funk the perfect foil to Gil’s poetic beats and incendiary social refractions.Their influence on modern hip hop & soul is breathtaking, the pair’s songs raked over by Kendrick, Fly-Lo, Common, A Tribe Called Quest.

Brian’s story doesn’t end there. He’d go on to work with Stevie Wonder, Kool & The Gang, Earth Wind & Fire, Gwen Guthrie.