Gil Scott-Heron by Brian Jackson & Yasiin Bey – Open Season 2026

Gil Scott-Heron did not simply predict the future. He named it. The American poet, musician and author drew on Harlem Renaissance poetics to fuse spoken word with jazz and blues, forging a radical new language for Black political and cultural expression that captured the spirit of the civil rights era and laid the foundations for hip-hop. His voice has been gone since 2011, but the blueprint he left behind remains one of the most vital in modern music.

This world premiere brings together two of the artists who carry that legacy most directly. Brian Jackson, the jazz pianist and composer who first met Scott-Heron at Lincoln University in 1969 and spent nine collaborative albums fusing jazz, funk and poetry alongside him, returns to that material at the source. Joining him is Yasiin Bey, the hip-hop legend whose own artistry sits in direct lineage to Scott-Heron’s conscious, searching, politically alive approach to song.

Brian Jackson and Yasiin Bey play The Tivoli for Open Season. For a voice that changed everything, and the artists keeping it alive.

Open Season is The Tivoli Group’s annual program of music, art and cultural events, transforming Brisbane into a winter playground for live performance each year. Open Season is independently owned and operated, and has funding assistance through the Live Music Office of the Australian Government and Arts Queensland.