Hymns and ethereality: Ms. Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack performing at Montreux Jazz Fest
I feel like devotional song, prayer—hymns—was present in my earliest memories. Hand clapping, right to left movement, the stereo system at mid to max volume on a weekend morning. Sound colored my childhood apartments (mom or grandparents) with warmth and emotion.
Roberta Flack’s music is one of my earliest music memories. My mom had a CD version of “Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway” (1972).
I remember the CD. The black background, with a golden mustard like yellow, and white. I always thought there was a floral decoration throughout. But if you look closely, they’re hands open outward. The palms are up – almost like a pray, and invitation to receive or trust.
I have memories (or were they dreams) of “I (Who Have Nothing)” or “Come Ye Disconsolate” playing at high volumes. Both feel like a soothing balm, but a bit gritty and as though the sound reflects or stretches back to the listener. They open with a heartiness on the piano (or some type of keys…that’s what it sounds like). But “Mood” is my favorite song on the album. I remember my mom telling me that Roberta Flack composed that song, and I thought it was so cool because she was a Black woman who created such an emotional, soulful, (almost) haunting, and regulating song. I can play that song on loops (and I have) for weeks at a time, day to evening.
When D’Angelo passed away last year, I remember a twitter post (the original post I can’t find, but I also saw similar posts on IG) that said that what shaped the artistry of so many artists, like D’Angelo and Roberta Flack, was the church. And while I don’t know if Roberta Flack has ever said this about her own work, I think that spirit speaks through her music, her performance, her voice. Like a hymn or praise to spirit—a belief in the glory and goodness of music and sound to move people.
Roberta Flack performing at Newport Jazz Fest from Jazz on MV
on YouTube
These are some of my favorite songs that Roberta Flack sings or performs. I think that each one speaks to, as Mel Tapley wrote in a 1991 Amsterdam news article, the “gentle soul, hypnot[ism]” and “burning fire” of her music. Ethereality is present, like a hymn or calling. Thank you, Roberta Flack, for sharing your art with us.
Go up Moses - has a hum and a calling “Am I clear this morning, y’all?”
The deep undertones.
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face – she evokes breadth of emotions, sadness, grief, joy, and maybe wonder.
To Love Somebody - (I love this also because I’m a huge Bee Gees fan and Barry Gibb wrote this and the Bee Gees are better than the Beatles, don’t at me) – it’s the first minutes of this video of her performance at Montreux Jazz fest in 1971, the clapping (clap clap, breath, clap clap, breath).
Where Is The Love? – her performance at Newport Jazz fest…the wind blow and moves her hair just as she starts singing a slowed down opening of the song.
I have a much longer list of songs on this playlist on YouTube.