American Masters: Roberta Flack

Hear Flack’s story in her own words and through interviews with Reverend Jesse Jackson, Angela Davis, Peabo Bryson and others

• Christina Zeiders
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Christina Zeiders is the Communications Specialist at WITF. She helps get the word out about all of WITF's programs, events and community conversations.

American Masters: Roberta Flack illuminates where reality, memory, and imagination mix to present transformative artist Roberta Flack in her own words.

From First Time Ever I Saw Your Face to Killing Me Softly and beyond, Flack gave voice to a global soundtrack of beauty and pain, love and anguish, hope and struggle. With exclusive access to archives of film, performances, interviews, home movies, photos, and unreleased music, American Masters documents how Flack’s musical brilliance was inseparable from her commitment to civil rights.

The film offers an intimate look into Flack’s artistry, life, and triumphs over racism and sexism within and outside of the recording industry. Her story is amplified through interviews with Reverend Jesse Jackson, Clint Eastwood, Yoko Ono, Angela Davis, Eugene McDaniels, Joel Dorn, Peabo Bryson, Valerie Simpson, Les McCann, Sean Lennon, Jason King, Ann Powers, and others.

A piano prodigy, Flack began studying classical piano when she was 9 years old and received a full music scholarship to Howard University at the age of 15.

In 1968, while moonlighting from her job as a music teacher, her talent caught the eye of jazz great Les McCann, who arranged for her to audition with Atlantic Records. This audition led to the recording of her debut album, First Take.

First Time I Ever Saw Your Face, a song from First Take, was personally selected by Clint Eastwood for his directorial debut, Play Misty for Me. It would win Flack a Grammy Award, and the following year, she won another for her cover of Killing Me Softly With His Song. She became the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year two years in a row.

Throughout her career, Flack established hit-making mentorships with Donny Hathaway, Luther Vandross, and Peabo Bryson. Her career spans decades and produced countless hit songs, including Feel Like Makin’ Love and The Closer I Get to You. American Masters captures how Flack used her platform to sing about the Black experience in America.

She has battled opinions about her mixed-race marriage, confronted racism within the recording industry, and created space for Black women to produce their own music. She released her latest project, Running, at age 80 in 2018, and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2020 Grammy Awards.

American Masters: Roberta Flack premieres on WITF TV and the PBS Video app on Tuesday, January 24 at 9pm. Stream the documentary on demand for free through the PBS Video app until February 22.