Roberta Flack

b. 10 February 1937, Asheville, North Carolina, USA. Born into a musical family, Flack graduated from Howard University with a BA in music. She was discovered singing and playing jazz in a Washington nightclub by pianist Les McCannwho recommended her talents to Atlantic. Two classy albums, FIRST TAKE and CHAPTER TWO garnered considerable acclaim for their skillful, often introspective content before Flack achieved huge success with a poignant version of folksinger Ewan MacColl's ballad, First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. Recorded in 1969, it was a major international hit three years later, following its inclusion in the film Play Misty For Me. Further hits came with Where Is The Love? (1972), a duet with Donny Hathaway and Killing Me Softly With His Song (1973), where Flack's penchant for sweeter, more MOR-styled compositions gained an ascendancy. Her cool, almost unemotional style benefited from a measured use of slow material, although she seemed less comfortable on uptempo songs. Flack's self-assurance wavered during the mid-70s, but further duets with Hathaway, The Closer I Get To You (1978) and You Are My Heaven (1980), suggested a rebirth. She was shattered when her partner committed suicide in 1979, but in the '80s Roberta enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Peabo Bryson which reached a commercial, if sentimental, peak with Tonight I Celebrate My Love in 1983. Roberta Flack remains a crafted, if precisionist, performer.