MUSIC #29: ROBERTA FLACK – QUIET FIRE 1971 (ENGLISH LP)

Roberta Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina (USA) on 10 February 1937. Not only a singer, she is also a songwriter and a classical pianist (at 15, she won a full scholarship to study classical piano music at Howard University, making her one of the youngest students ever to enroll there). Roberta is notable for jazz, soul, folk, rhythm and blues (R&B) music; and is best known for her Hot 100 #1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "Feel Like Makin' Love", "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You" (the last two songs were duets with Donny Hathaway). "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won the 1973 Grammy Record of the Year and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" won the same award at the 1974 Grammy Awards. She and U2 are the only two artists credited to win the award in back-to-back years. (Source: http://www.robertaflack.com/)

Quiet Fire is Roberta Flack's third album and was released in 1971. The album features Roberta's rendition of the 1960 Shirelles classic, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" and the Paul Simon hit, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (which won the best album, best engineered recording, record of the year and best song of the year in 1970 for Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel). This is one of the better jazz/R&B albums and makes for very pleasurable listening. I love it.

My rating: Four stars +

Roberta Flack: Quiet Fire 1971

Side One

1. Go Up Moses

2. Bridge over Troubled Water

3. Sunday and Sister Jones

4. See You Then

Side Two

1. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

2. To Love Somebody

3. Let Them Talk

4. Sweet Bitter Love