How to Stream Roberta Flack’s ‘Celebration of Life’ memorial
NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Roberta Flack, the Grammy-winning singer and pianist whose songs “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” made her a global star, will be eulogized at a memorial service Monday.
Flack was one of the top recording artists of the 1970s and an influential performer due to her intimate vocal and musical style, died last month. She was 88.
Flack’s “Celebration of Life” memorial will be livestreamed from New York on Monday afternoon.
Here’s everything you need to know:
Flack’s Celebration of Life will take place at the Abyssinian Baptist Church beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern. It is open to the public. The service will also be livestreamed at www.RobertaFlack.com.
It is a fitting location: Flack grew up with church gospel; her mother played organ at the Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia. As a teen, she began accompanying the church choir on piano.
Flack leaves behind a rich repertoire of music that avoids categorization. Her debut, “First Take,” wove soul, jazz, flamenco, gospel and folk into one revelatory package, prescient in its form and measured in its approach.
She will likely be remembered for her classics. Those include “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” her dreamy cover of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” written by English folk artist Ewan MacColl for his wife Peggy Seeger. It marked the beginning of Flack’s mainstream success when it was used in a love scene between Clint Eastwood and Donna Mills in his 1971 film “Play Misty for Me.”
But most will think of “Killing Me Softly with His Song” when Flack’s name comes up in conversation. She first heard Lori Lieberman’s “Killing Me Softly with His Song” while on a plane and immediately fell in love with it. While on tour with Quincy Jones, she covered the song, and the audience feel in love with it, too, as they’d continue to for decades.
Listen to The Associated Press’ Robert Flack playlist here.
