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Quick Facts. Also Known As: Roberta Cleopatra Flack. Age: 85 Years, 85 Year Old Females. Family: Spouse/Ex-: Stephen Novosel (1966–1972) father: Laron LeRoy. mother: Irene Council. children: Bernard Wright. Jazz Singers Folk Singers. Height: 5'4" (163 cm ), 5'4" Females. U.S. State: North Carolina. Ancestry: Cameroonian American. More Facts.
Nov 15, 2022 · Who is Roberta Flack's husband and does she have children? From 1966 to 1972, Roberta Flack was married to jazz bassist Steve Novosel. She never remarried, and she has never had children. What has Roberta Flack been up to recently? Roberta Flack in 2020. Picture: Getty.
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Jan 17, 2023 · This timeline explores Flack’s life and the major milestones in her career. Born in Asheville, North Carolina, and raised in Arlington, Virginia, Roberta Flack discovered her earliest...
She is the only solo artist to win the GRAMMY Award Record of the Year for two (2) consecutive years: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face won the 1973 GRAMMY and Killing Me Softly with His Song won the 1974 GRAMMY. Classically trained on the piano from an early age, Ms. Flack received a music scholarship at age 15 to attend Howard University.
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Roberta Flack (born February 10, 1937, Black Mountain, North Carolina, U.S.) American rhythm and blues (R&B) singer known for the number-one hits “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (1972) and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” (1973), and for her duets with soul music singer Donny Hathaway “Where Is the Love” (1972) and “The Closer I Get to You” ...
Flack was raised in Arlington, Virginia, by her father, Laron Flack, who worked as a draftsman and played the piano and the harmonica, and her mother, Irene (née Council) Flack, who was a church pianist and organist. Roberta Flack found early musical inspiration in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. In contrast to the more ecstatic sounds of some southern U.S. churches, the African Methodist congregations favoured long-lined hymns and the cultivation of meaningful quietude in its music, which would later become a cornerstone of Flack’s work. She was musically precocious. “At age three, maybe four, there was me at the keys of that church piano picking out hymns we would sing, like ‘Precious Lord, Take My Hand,’ ” she recalled in a 2023 autobiographical children’s book. When her father brought home an old upright piano that he had repaired, Flack learned to play songs while sitting on her mother’s lap. She started studying piano at age nine and began exploring and absorbing a wide range of jazz, R&B, and popular music.
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During her teenage years she trained as a concert pianist, harbouring a special affection for composers Johann Sebastian Bach, Robert Schumann, and Frédéric Chopin. In 1952, at age 15, she obtained a full scholarship to study music at Howard University, where she later met her friend and future duet partner Hathaway. She worked toward a degree in music education while leading her sorority’s vocal ensemble and directing a production of the opera Aida, graduating in 1956. She started graduate studies in music, but, when her father died in 1959, she left school and took teaching jobs in North Carolina and later in Washington, D.C.
Still yearning to perform, she began accompanying opera singers on piano at the prestigious Tivoli Opera House club in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., in 1962. One evening in December 1967, she was instructed by her boss, who wanted to clear the busy room for new customers, to stop playing the usual opera music and switch to Christmas carols. At first, she just played piano but soon found herself humming and then singing “The Christmas Song.” The audience applauded and asked her to sing another song. Flack declined, but, in an interview with The Washington Post in 1989, she recalled that moment as “my cue that people would listen to me as a singer.” She began performing several nights a week as a singer and pianist in local clubs, and she quit her teaching job to focus on her music career.
Her club performances were attended by top musicians, such as Burt Bacharach, Ramsey Lewis, and Johnny Mathis. In 1968 Flack performed at a benefit for the Inner City Ghetto Children’s Library Fund in Washington, D.C., and gained notice from jazz musician Les McCann, who later wrote in the liner notes of her debut album First Take (1969), “Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known. I laughed, cried, and screamed for more.” McCann arranged for Flack to audition for Atlantic Records producer Joel Dorn, for whom she played more than 40 songs from her extensive repertoire.
First Take was recorded over a period of just 10 hours at Atlantic Studios in New York City with a backing band of top-tier jazz musicians, including bassist Ron Carter, guitarist John (“Bucky”) Pizzarelli, and drummer Ray Lucas. The album weaves textures of soul and folk music, and Flack’s well-selected track list includes a slower take on the traditional gospel song “I Told Jesus,” singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s poetic ballad “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye,” and folk singer Ewan MacColl’s 1957 love song “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”
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In 1970 Flack released her sophomore album, Chapter Two, a critically acclaimed recording that includes her interpretations of “Until It’s Time for You to Go,” written by folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, and “Just Like a Woman” by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Chapter Two was produced by Dorn and R&B pioneer King Curtis and arranged by Hathaway. On her 1971 album Quiet Fire, Flack explores the slower, softer side of soul music with renditions of “Bridge over Troubled Waters,” composed by singer-songwriter Paul Simon, and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” by the songwriting team of Carole King and Gerry Goffin.
Feb 10, 2020 · Rubina helped Roberta endure the indignities faced by gifted black children in the South, as when she'd sing "Carry Me Back To Old Virginny" for contest judges in hotels where she wasn't...
May 17, 2018 · Born February 10, 1940, in Black Mountain, N.C., raised in Arlington, Va.; daughter of Zaron (a draftsman) and Irene (a domestic and cook) Flack; married Stephen Novosel (a jazz bassist), 1966 (divorced, 1972). Education: Howard University, B.A., 1958, postgraduate studies in music education; doctoral work at University of Massachusetts — Amherst.
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