NEW YORK (AP) — A public memorial service bursting with music, including performances by Stevie Wonder and a surprise visit by Lauryn Hill, celebrated the life and legacy of Grammy-winning singer and pianist Roberta Flack.
Flack's songs “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and “Killing Me Softly With His Song" made her a global star in the 1970s and beyond. She died last month at age 88.
After Hill showed up to perform back-to-back covers of those hits, Wonder performed for the service at a historic Harlem church. The Rev. Al Sharpton gave the eulogy.
Flack "put a soundtrack to Black dignity,” Sharpton said.
She was an influential performer with an intimate vocal and musical style that ranged easily between soul, jazz and gospel.
Her “Celebration of Life” memorial was livestreamed at www.RobertaFlack.com and on YouTube.
Here are some highlights:
For the memory of a singing legend, a historic location
Flack's memorial was open to the public at The Abyssinian Baptist Church. Founded in 1808, it is one of the oldest Black Baptist churches in the U.S.
The church was decorated for the ceremony with stunning white and yellow bouquets and filled quickly. At center, a screen showed a young Flack at the piano and played highlights of her career.
It was a fitting location: Flack grew up with church gospel and 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.
The program featured a powerful quote from Flack.
“Remember: Always walk in the light,” it read. “If you feel like you’re not walking in it, go find it. Love the Light.”
Celebrating a life in music — through music
“Her existence was a form of resistance,” Hill said, holding back tears.
Hill's appearance was unexpected but fitting. In the 1990s, Hill's hip-hop trio the Fugees did a masterful take on Flack’s cover “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” which introduced much of the world to Hill’s gift.
“I adore Ms. Roberta Flack,” she said. “Roberta Flack is legend.”
Hill then launched into a cover of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” followed by “Killing Me Softly With His Song” with the Fugees’ Wyclef Jean — and Wonder joining in on harmonica.
A legend who needed no introduction, Wonder followed up.
“The great thing about not having the ability to see with your eyes is the great opportunity of being able to even better see with your heart. And so I knew how beautiful Roberta was, not seeing her visually but being able to see and feel her heart,” Wonder said.
He performed his song “If It's Magic,” then sat at the piano to sing with the harpist a song he wrote for Flack, “I Can See the Sun in Late December.”
“I love you, Roberta. And I will see you,” Wonder said at the end.
Earlier, songwriter and performer Valerie Simpson played piano and sang an extended take of “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” interspersed with recollections of her friend.
“But that voice. Aw, she’d just grab you in the heart. And then when she touched the keys, she knew how to dig down deep,” Simpson said.
Simpson recalled being tapped to perform in “Chicago” for her 2018 Broadway debut and how she told Flack she wasn’t sure if she could act.
“She looked at me and said, ‘Girl, where’s the script? Bring it over here. We’re going to work on this thing. We’re going to do this,’” remembered Simpson.
New Orleans singer and piano player Davell Crawford performed a soulful version of Flack’s song “Just When I Needed You” to extended shouts and cheers.
A legendary artist remembered
“Many of us are here today because she has touched not just our hearts but she also touched our souls,” said the Rev. Dr. Kevin R. Johnson, the senior church pastor who led the service.
Choir performances including a rousing rendition of “Amazing Grace” came in between a video recollection of Flack's life and scripture readings.
“The reason we’re here is because she made a difference," Sharpton said. And we should all ask ourselves when it comes our time, will they pack a church for you? If Roberta were here tonight, she would tell you, ‘don’t just praise me, emulate me.’"
Actor Phylicia Rashad remembered first seeing Flack perform when she was a student at Howard University — to an audience that grew rapt by her quiet, steady voice.
Flack lived comfortably with her genius and without having to proclaim it to people, Rashad said.
“She wore that like a loose fitting garment and lived her life attending to that which she cared for most: music, love and humanity,” Rashad said.
What are some of Flack's best-known songs?
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.
“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," her dreamy cover of a song by English folk artist Ewan MacColl, marked the beginning of Flack's mainstream success.
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.
The audience feel in love with it, too.
Listen to The Associated Press' Robert Flack playlist here.
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Mead Gruver contributed to this report from Cheyenne, Wyoming.
