Soul and Jazz Legend Roberta Flack Dies At Age 88

Roberta Flack, one of America’s greatest Jazz and Soul singers, has died at the age of 88.

Roberta Flack first made a name when Clint Eastwood used her cover of ‘First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ in his movie ‘Play Misty For Me’. The song was written by Ewan Macoll, the father of singer Kirsty Macoll. Roberta worked with Eastwood again in 1983 when she recorded the music at the end of ‘Sudden Impact’.

The song earned Roberta the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1973. She became the first person to win the award two years in a row when in 1974 she won it again for ‘Killing Me Softy with His Song’. She was awarded five Grammy Awards in her time including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.

Roberta Flack started out as a school teacher teaching music in North Carolina. She continued teaching when she moved to Washington DC, started giving private tutor lessons and began performing in nightclubs.

Jazz singer Les McCann saw Flack in one of those Washington nightclubs and took her to Atlantic Records. Her first album ‘First Take’ was reportedly recorded in just 10 hours.

In 1972, Roberta teamed up with R&B singer Donny Hathaway. The 1972 album ‘Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway’ featured the hit ‘Where Is The Love’.

In 1974 ‘Feel Like Making Love’ was her big hit.

In the 1980s Roberta teamed up with Peabo Bryson for the ‘Born To Love’ album. ‘Tonight I Celebrate My Love’ reached no 16 in the USA and no 10 in Australia.

Roberta lived in New York at the Dakota building, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived with their son Sean. Beyond her music career, Flack was known for her philanthropy and efforts in music education, founding the Roberta Flack School of Music at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in the Bronx, New York, to provide music education to underprivileged children. Roberta Flack died from cardiac arrest on her way to hospital.

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