Recording
To record the album, Jackson suggested a small studio located outside of Washington, D.C. in Silver Spring, Maryland. The sessions took place in September and October 1973 at Silver Spring's D&B Sound Studios. According to Scott-Heron, the studio's main room was so small that when the two musicians recorded, Jackson was forced out next to the cooler, playing flute in the studio's hallway while Scott-Heron sang in the main room. However, Scott-Heron felt comfortable in the small studio. Jose Williams was enlisted as the recording engineer for the album. Williams assisted Scott-Heron and Jackson, who were credited for production under the title Perpis-Fall Music, Inc., with production, and he engineered the album's recordings entirely himself.
The recording sessions served as the first production credit for Scott-Heron, Jackson, and Jose Williams. As the third unofficial collaboration between Scott-Heron and Jackson, the album's recording featured more of Jackson's input than before. Jackson recounted the experience in an interview for All About Jazz, stating "He had this way with words and I thought to myself, 'People have to hear this stuff'. What I had to offer was the music and I figured if we can take his words and make this tribal knowledge rhythmic and musical, we can draw people to hear it."
In contrast to their Flying Dutchman recordings and subsequent Arista recordings, Winter in America utilized a sparse production quality and small number of sessions musicians. A small supporting line-up, featuring drummer Bob Adams and bassist Danny Bowens, contributed on a few cuts. Adams and Bowens, who studied with Scott-Heron at Lincoln University, arrived from the Pennsylvania-based college on the last day of recording on October 15, 1973. Scott-Heron and Jackson handled most of the vocals, songwriting, and instrumentation, and they were assisted by Williams with the production.
The September 4 and 5 sessions featured only Jackson and Scott-Heron playing and recording. The limited personnel during these sessions allowed them to rely mostly on traditional African and R&B sounds and influences, along with more creative and artistic control of the project. More than half of the album's songs were co-written and produced by Jackson. His input also helped solidify his partnership with Scott-Heron, leading to further records together before their split in 1978.
Read more about this topic: Winter In America
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