Day: March 10, 2025

Music flows in Roberta Flack’s ‘Celebration of Life’ memorial with Stevie Wonder and Al Sharpton

NEW YORK — A public memorial service bursting with choral music and the Berklee College of Music’s Nebulous String Quartet, with Stevie Wonder and the Rev. Al Sharpton also on the bill, 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. 

Wonder was among the artists scheduled to perform during the service at a historic Harlem church, while Sharpton was to deliver the eulogy, according to the memorial program. 

Flack 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, an 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 beforehand. At the 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.” 

A celebration of a life in music … with music 

“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. 

“That’s what we call church, y’all,” Johnson said at the close of one choral performance. 

Organ and piano riffs played off and on in the background. 

“She just sang the song. She let you hear the lyrics. She let you understand the beauty. But I also want you to understand that this woman was also a pure genius,” Santita Jackson, daughter of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a friend of Flack, told the near-capacity crowd. 

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. 

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 fell in love with it, too, as they’d continue to for decades.

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Former US first lady Michelle Obama and her brother to launch podcast

NEW YORK — Michelle Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, will host a new weekly podcast series starting this month featuring a special guest pulled from the world of entertainment, sports, health or business.

“IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson” will address “everyday questions shaping our lives, relationships and the world around us,” according to a press release. IMO is slang for “in my opinion.”

Some of the guests slated to speak to the former first lady and Robinson, the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, include actors Issa Rae and Keke Palmer and psychologist Dr. Orna Guralnik.

Other guests include filmmakers Seth and Lauren Rogan; soccer star Abby Wambach; authors Jay Shetty, Glennon Doyle and Logan Ury; editor Elaine Welteroth; radio personality Angie Martinez; media mogul Tyler Perry; actor Tracee Ellis Ross; husband-and-wife athlete and actor Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union; and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky.

The first two episodes — the first is an introductory one and the second features Rae — will premiere on March 12. New episodes will be released weekly and will be available on all audio platforms and YouTube.

“With everything going on in the world, we’re all looking for answers and people to turn to,” Obama said in a statement. “There is no single way to deal with the challenges we may be facing — whether it’s family, faith, or our personal relationships — but taking the time to open up and talk about these issues can provide hope.”

Obama has had two other podcasts — “The Michelle Obama Podcast” in 2020 and another in 2023, “The Light We Carry.” Her husband, Barack Obama, offered a series of conversations about American life between him and Bruce Springsteen.

The new podcast is a production of Higher Ground, the media company founded in 2018 by the former president and first lady.

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Writers, artists adapt AI technology to gain creative control

Artificial intelligence companies train their AI models using the works of writers, artists and creatives who typically aren’t credited or compensated. Instead of fighting AI, some tech companies are encouraging creators to take advantage of it. Tina Trinh reports.

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