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From Best ClassicBands.com-
Roberta Flack, the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in consecutive years with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly,” will be the subject of a new edition of PBS’ American Masters series. The program will premiere in 2023.
American Masters: Roberta Flack presents the music icon who transformed popular culture, in her own words. With exclusive access to Flack’s archives of film, performances, interviews, home movies, photos, hit songs and unreleased music, the film documents how Flack’s musical virtuosity was inseparable from her lifelong commitment to civil rights. American Masters: Roberta Flack debuts in the U.S. on January 24 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS Video App.
American Masters: Roberta Flack provides an intimate look into Flack’s artistry, life and triumphs over racism and sexism within and outside of the recording industry. Flack’s story is illuminated through interviews with Reverend Jesse Jackson, Clint Eastwood, Yoko Ono, Angela Davis, Peabo Bryson, Valerie Simpson, and more.
Flack was born on February 10, 1937, and became a piano prodigy at an early age. She began studying classical piano at age 9 and was awarded a full music scholarship to Howard University at the age of 15. In 1968, moonlighting from her job as a music teacher with a regular gig at a Washington, DC, nightclub, her singular talent caught the eye of jazz great Les McCann, who arranged an audition for Flack with Atlantic Records, which led to the recording of her debut album, First Take. “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face,” a song from First Take, was selected by Clint Eastwood for his directorial debut, Play Misty for Me, and it would win Flack a Grammy Award.
With his shoestring $1 million dollar film production budget Eastwood couldn’t afford to pay much. He offered $2,000 and she accepted.
Throughout her extraordinary career, Flack established hit-making mentorships with Donny Hathaway, Luther Vandross and Bryson. Flack’s career has spanned decades and produced numerous other hit songs, including “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and “Where Is the Love.” The film chronicles how, throughout her pioneering career, Flack used her powerful platform to sing about the Black experience in America. She battled opinions of her mixed-race marriage, confronted blatant racism within the recording industry and created space for Black women to produce their own music. She released her latest album, Running, at age 80 in 2018, and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2020 Grammy Awards.
Flack will publish an autobiographical, lyrical picture book, The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music, on Feb. 14, 2023.
Launched in 1986 on PBS, American Masters has earned 28 Emmy Awards — including 10 for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series and five for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special — 14 Peabodys, an Oscar, three Grammys, and many other honors.
Roberta Flack, the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in consecutive years with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly,” will be the subject of a new edition of PBS’ American Masters series. The program will premiere in 2023.
American Masters: Roberta Flack presents the music icon who transformed popular culture, in her own words. With exclusive access to Flack’s archives of film, performances, interviews, home movies, photos, hit songs and unreleased music, the film documents how Flack’s musical virtuosity was inseparable from her lifelong commitment to civil rights. American Masters: Roberta Flack debuts in the U.S. on January 24 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS Video App.
American Masters: Roberta Flack provides an intimate look into Flack’s artistry, life and triumphs over racism and sexism within and outside of the recording industry. Flack’s story is illuminated through interviews with Reverend Jesse Jackson, Clint Eastwood, Yoko Ono, Angela Davis, Peabo Bryson, Valerie Simpson, and more.
Flack was born on February 10, 1937, and became a piano prodigy at an early age. She began studying classical piano at age 9 and was awarded a full music scholarship to Howard University at the age of 15. In 1968, moonlighting from her job as a music teacher with a regular gig at a Washington, DC, nightclub, her singular talent caught the eye of jazz great Les McCann, who arranged an audition for Flack with Atlantic Records, which led to the recording of her debut album, First Take. “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face,” a song from First Take, was selected by Clint Eastwood for his directorial debut, Play Misty for Me, and it would win Flack a Grammy Award.
With his shoestring $1 million dollar film production budget Eastwood couldn’t afford to pay much. He offered $2,000 and she accepted.
Throughout her extraordinary career, Flack established hit-making mentorships with Donny Hathaway, Luther Vandross and Bryson. Flack’s career has spanned decades and produced numerous other hit songs, including “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and “Where Is the Love.” The film chronicles how, throughout her pioneering career, Flack used her powerful platform to sing about the Black experience in America. She battled opinions of her mixed-race marriage, confronted blatant racism within the recording industry and created space for Black women to produce their own music. She released her latest album, Running, at age 80 in 2018, and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2020 Grammy Awards.
Flack will publish an autobiographical, lyrical picture book, The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music, on Feb. 14, 2023.
Launched in 1986 on PBS, American Masters has earned 28 Emmy Awards — including 10 for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series and five for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special — 14 Peabodys, an Oscar, three Grammys, and many other honors.
