Roberta Flack: The Soulful Prodigy

Roberta Flack was born Roberta Cleopatra Flack on February 10, 1937 in Black Mountain, North Carolina. She grew up in Arlington, Virginia, the daughter of a church organist .

Roberta’s family surrounded her with music and she herself started playing the piano at an early age. As a teenager, she joined Howard University on a music scholarship and graduated a few years later with a bachelor’s degree in music.

Soon after, Roberta was spotted by jazz pianist Les McCann while singing and playing jazz at a Washington nightclub. He recommended her to Atlantic Records and Roberta signed with the label in 1969.

Roberta’s first two albums, First Take and Chapter Two got good reviews and were well received. But neither produced any hit singles. She released her third album, Quiet Fire, in 1971. This was a significant album as it had her singing for the first time with Donny Hathaway. Their duet Where Is The Love became popular and Roberta went on to sing many more duets with Donny, who incidentally, was also her classmate from Howard.

Roberta’s first taste of chart success came when The First Time I Saw your Face, a track from First Take was used in the soundtrack of the Clint Eastwood film Play Misty For Me. The track became an instant hit, shooting to No. 1 on the charts in 1972 and holding the top spot for six weeks. It became the biggest hit of that year. Roberta’s second No. 1 on the charts came the next year with Killing Me Softly With His Song. This time the song stayed on top for five weeks. The following year she scored yet again with Feel Like Makin’ Love, making it her third No. 1 single.

Over the next few years Roberta’s singles appeared regularly on the charts with varying degrees of success. In 1979 however she tragically lost Donny Hathaway, her duet partner of several years, when the latter committed suicide. Tracks that Roberta had recorded with him included The Closer I Get To You (1978) and You are My Heaven (1979).

It was only in 1980 that Roberta teamed up with a steady partner again. This time she chose to sing her duets with Peabo Bryson. Bryson and Flack toured and recorded together throughout the 80’s. Their biggest hit was the soulful Tonight I Celebrate My Love, recorded in 1983.
It was also in 1980 that Roberta turned lyricist, writing much of the score for the Richard Pryor-Cicely Tyson starrer, Bustin’ Loose. The soundtrack included Qual E Malindrinho (Why Are You So Bad), which became very popular at the time.

Roberta spent much of the 80’s touring and performing live. Her recordings included If I’m Still Around Tomorrow (1984) with jazz fusion artist Sadao Watanabe and the album Oasis (1988), containing the dance track Uh Uh Oh Oh Look Out Here It Comes.

During the 90’s Roberta released Set the Night to Music (1991) and Roberta (1995), a compilation of jazz standards.

Though sporadically, Roberta continues to create magic with her smooth, urbane voice and soul stirring songs. Many of her former hits are considered classics and have fans among present day music enthusiasts. Roberta Flack’s last release was a retrospective in 2006 with Atlantic.

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