![]() That same year she also became one of the first Black investors in the New York City radio station WBLS. She sang a duet with Michael Jackson on the 1974 television adaptation of the influential feminist children's album Free To Be. The following year she sang at groundbreaking baseball legend Jackie Robinson's funeral. In 1971, she performed at the Soul to Soul Festival in Accra, Ghana, alongside Wilson Pickett and Ike & Tina Turner. Powers also noted how Flack's career "dazzles with surprising details," especially within the Black community. "When I met artists and so many others in person and heard from them that they were inspired by my music, I felt understood.' "It was overwhelming and breathtaking to be there," she recalls. At the ceremony, such stars as Khalid, Lizzo, Ana DuVernay, Demi Lovato, Alicia Keys, Chick Corea, and Ariana Grande visited with Roberta to pay their respects. Two years ago Flack was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. As music critic Ann Powers recently wrote on NPR.org, "Flack's presence looms over both R&B and indie 'bedroom' pop as if she were one of the astral beings in Ava DuVernay's version of 'A Wrinkle In Time.'" The reissue of the soundtrack for Bustin' Loose – a film described by The New York Timesas "determinedly, aggressively sentimental" – enhances the burgeoning enshrinement of Flack as a groundbreaking and influential Black music icon and was originally released at a time when both she and Pryor were both among America's most prominent mainstream African American entertainers. On Bustin' Loose, Vandross shares vocals with Flack on the set's opening track, "Just When I Needed You " Roberta sings his composition "You Stopped Loving Me," which reappeared less than two months later on his two-million-selling debut solo album.īryson sings and co-wrote "Ballad for D" on the soundtrack, and two years later he and Flack released a gold duet album, Born to Love, which featured the million-selling hit single, "Tonight I Celebrate My Love." The Bustin' Loose recordings were tracked with such notable players as two-time GRAMMY®-winning multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter and film composer Marcus Miller on bass, keyboard player Barry Miles (Flack's musical director for 15 years), and on drums Buddy Williams, known for his work with Grover Washington, Nat Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie, David Sanborn, The Manhattan Transfer, Hugh Masekela, Vandross and others. It presages the rise to superstardom soon after by Vandross, who had sung backing vocals with Flack on her 1972 million-selling debut duet album with Donny Hathaway. ![]() ![]() With six of its nine songs co-written by Flack, the set – described as "electric modern soul" by the Department of Afro American Research, Arts, and Culture – features star guest vocalists Luther Vandross and Peabo Bryson alongside five numbers sung by Flack and two instrumentals she co-wrote. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |