ROBERTA FLACK
Her incredible voice gave life to songs like "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", and "Feel Like Makin' Love" to name a few. She has received four Grammy awards from thirteen nominations, and is one of only two artists to win the award in back-to-back years. Her duet partners have included Howard University classmate: Donny Hathaway, Jamaican vocalist Maxi Priest and Peabo Bryson. She is the one, the only Roberta Flack. A living legend with a career spanning over four decades, 5 Top 10 singles, and 3 U.S. Top Five albums.
A multi-talented singer and musician who is notable for her jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music accomplishments. The daughter of a church organist, Flack started piano lessons at very early age and eventually received a music scholarship to Howard University. After graduation, she taught music and sang in clubs, where she was discovered by jazz musician Les McCann who helped her land a record deal with Atlantic. Actor Clint Eastwood had a major impact on the songbirds success, when he chose her version of Ewan MacColl's song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" as the sound track for the movie "Play Misty for Me", which was his directorial debut. Thus the song became 1972's biggest hit of the year and earned Ms. Flack a million-selling gold disc. Eastwood remained an admirer and friend and in 1983, Roberta recorded the end music for the film Dirty Harry-Sudden Impact at Eastwood's request.
NBC contracted Ms. Flack in 1986 to sing the theme song entitled "Together Through the Years" for the television series "Valerie" later known as "The Hogan Family". All six seasons of the show used Roberts's recording of the theme song. Ms. Flack was honored with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in 1999 and that same year, South African President Nelson Mandela attended the final performance of her South African concert tour. Never one to rest on her laurels, sheis a member of the Artist Empowerment Coalition, which advocates the right of artists to control their creative properties and she is also a spokesperson for the American Society for the prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Her appearance in commercials for the ASPCA featured the song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". The Hyde Leadership Charter School, located in the Bronx section of New York City is home to an after-school music program called "The Roberta Flack School of Music" and is in partnership with Flack, who founded the school, which provides free music education to underprivileged students.
Today, she continues to tour and perform everywhere for the Montreux Festival to the Calgary Folk Festival. She appeared on the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2010, soaking up the love and admiration of fans and fellow performers as well as pairing with Maxwell for a duet of "Where Is The Love". Yes, Flack, who was afforded this sort of love when her song 'Killing Me Softly' was resurrected by the Fugees, is clearly back in her element in the spotlight. To date she has been diligently creating a collection of vocals for SONY ,of Beatles cover songs as a tribute to her old neighbor John Lennon, who lived next door to her in the Dakota Building. Rumor has it the release date is set for April 21st, 2011.
