The First Minute of a New Day

Credited to Gil Scott-Heron, Brian Jackson and the Midnight Band, it was recorded in June and July 1974 at D&B Sound in Silver Spring, Maryland, produced by Scott-Heron and Jackson, and released by Arista in January 1975 as the label's first album from them, catalogue A 4030. The band was larger and the sound slicker than on Winter in America, and the song "Winter in America", left off that LP, appears here. Scott-Heron sang and played piano, electric piano and guitar, Jackson played synthesizer, keyboards and flute and sang, Bilal Sunni Ali played flute, harmonica and saxophone, with Danny Bowens on bass, Eddie Knowles, Barnett Williams and Victor Brown on percussion, Charlie Saunders on congas and drums, Bob Adams on drums and Victor Bowens on tambourine, vocals and bells. The 1998 CD adds a 1982 live medley from the Wax Museum and a 1978 solo "Winter in America". No singles were released.

It reached 5 on Billboard's jazz chart over 24 weeks, 8 on the black albums chart and 30 on the pop chart. AllMusic's Tim Sheridan gives it four stars as "solid, decidedly left-of-center jazz-R&B", Robert Christgau a B, and Neil Tesser wrote of a voice of "mahogany, sunshine, and tears". It widened Scott-Heron's audience and gave the new label a commercial foothold.