ROBERTA FLACK.

Roberta Flack often lets a song grow out of silence. Her vocals do not need to amplify the emotion more than the lyrics demand; piano, phrasing, and timing carry the story. Soul and jazz come together in a style where attention to a single line can be more important than an exuberant vocal gesture.

First Take and Killing Me Softly offer different entry points to that approach. The collaboration with Donny Hathaway additionally brings the conversation between two voices to the fore. Anyone listening to Roberta Flack on vinyl can place those records side by side and follow the change in arrangement, harmonies, and atmosphere across entire LP sides.

A live release like The Montreux Years demonstrates what a stage does to that intimacy. Familiar songs take on a different dimension when a musician takes up space or the voice extends a phrase. The available vinyl records and existing artist and album stories for SJELF invite you to discover those details further.

Read more in the existing SJELF stories: Roberta Flack and FIRST TAKE. (Roberta Flack). These stories provide context for the artist and the albums.

Explore the musical background through soul and jazz.