Roberta Flack - In Concert DVD

Roberta Flack's television concert, recorded specifically for the Jazz Channel in 2000, reveals a mature artist at the peak of her vocal powers. Flack is the thinking person's soul singer: a versatile performer who can swing from jazz to blues and MOR to pop with ease, always choosing material with impeccable taste; and she’s a fine pianist too (she is a music graduate of Howard University).Born in 1937, Flack is probably best known for her global 1973 hit, "Killing Me Softly with His Song", revived by the Fugees in the late 1990s. Here, Flack reclaims the song, even... giving it an unexpected twist of salsa, and dedicating it to Nelson Mandela following what was clearly an emotional meeting with him on a tour of South Africa. Her rich, fluid, understated voice serves other material closely associated with her beautifully, interspersed with autobiographical stories and references (although she doesn't dwell on her commercially successful partnerships with Donny Hathaway, who committed suicide in 1979, and Peabo Bryson). "Why Don't You Move in With Me", "Feel Like Makin' Love" and of course, Ewan MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" are all ornamented with some subtle jazz tones and inflections to classy effect. And there's a tremendous modernised version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" which gets the audience swinging. In the end, though, it's "Reverend Lee" which brings the house down. Fabulous. --Piers Ford [show more]

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