Roberta Flack performed Monday on the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage as part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration sponsored by the President’s Office. The performance set an attendance record, drawing over 8,000 students and other fans of Flack’s music together to celebrate the life of Dr. King.
The event also featured performances by The Georgetown University Gospel Choir, whose songs included traditional gospel and soul classics as “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “We Shall Overcome,” and the Chapel Choir, which sang “African Glory” and “African Magnifica.” These songs were well received, proving a reverent and fitting tribute to the memory of Martin Luther King Jr.
An artist with strong ties to the D.C. area, Ms. Flack graduated from Howard University and spent several years teaching English in the D.C. public school system before she was discovered at Mr. Henry’s Victorian Pub (a bar located on Pennsylvania Avenue) and signed to Atlantic Records. While her early albums were well received, her later work, especially her collaborations with artists such as Donny Hathaway, Peabo Bryson and even Miles Davis gained her widespread acclaim.
Gospel Choir, member Joe Erato (CAS ‘03) echoed the sentiment of many of his fellow singers when he said of Roberta Flack, “She knows music. She is truly a musician as well as a singer.” She proved this admirably by providing her only accompaniment on piano. Her powerful vocal and musical style, a blend of soul, spiritual and funk elements, was punctuated with her personable and touching stories that provided insight into the thought process behind her singing and songwriting. She introduced her hit “Killing Me Softly” (which was later remade by the Fugees on their 1996 album The Score) by relating how Nelson Mandela told her that her words and music helped “keep him alive” while a political prisoner in South Africa.
The evening’s finale featured both of the Georgetown choirs accompanying Ms. Flack in “Oh, Freedom.” The singer introduced the song by describing the moment when the song “became real to her” while she was visiting a slave prison in Ghana. She related how when given the choice between remaining imprisoned with the guards or diving into the ocean 600 feet below, many of the slaves chose to die than live a life without freedom. It was then that the lyrics to the song-“And before I’d be a slave, I’d be buried in my grave and go home to my Lord and be free”-took on profound new meaning for Ms. Flack.
The evening was not only a chance to hear one of the top R&B singers of the past few decades, but also provided the opportunity to understand Flack’s life and songs on a personal level through her warm anecdotes. Not to mention allowing Georgetown students to perform with and see a genuine star, helping to bring the arts to Georgetown.
