Biography
Robbie Gordon began performing with vocalist, songwriter,
and poet Gil Scott-Heron in the late '70s, first appearing as
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part of Scott-Heron's accompanying Midnight Band with
pianist Brian Jackson on the introspective 1978 Mind of
Gil Scott-Heron. Robbie Gordon continued working with
this group into the '80s, subsequent to Jackson's departure.
Gordon is also featured on Scott-Heron's 1994 comeback
album entitled Spirits, on which he shared bass duties with
Fima Ephron as well as the album'sproducer, Malcolm Cecil.
The combination of political lyrics and musical influences from both jazz and funk
found on these and other Scott-Heron records have been considered highly
influential in the development of both rap and acid jazz. It is the latter style that
Gordon has gravitated toward on his own, coming up with a superb solo album in
1996. Accurately entitled Still Growing, the CD mixed together a generous portion of
Gordon's original compositions with covers of both Scott-Heron and Jaco Pastorius.
For several years following this release, Gordon served as an in-house producer for
the Acid Jazz label. He has also stepped into publishing ventures, in 2004 producing
the book Ordinary Guy by another Scott-Heron associate, Mark T. Watson (aka Malik
Al-Nasir).
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.