CRITIC'S CHOICE

Gil Scott-Heron, Friday, June 24, at the Ogden Theatre, may not be the father of rap music, but he's certainly been a major influence on those current hip-hoppers who are trying to push the genre forward. Scott-Heron was combining jazzy music and spoken/sung poetics a generation ago, and his current TVT album, Spirits, offers persuasive evidence that what he has to say is still worth hearing. Whether or not the revolution will be televised, Scott-Heron will be there to comment on it. You couldn't ask for a wiser or more generous pundit.