Roberta Flack: Quiet Storm

Creative Legends of the DMV

Roberta Flack is a tour de force singer, musician and composer best known for her hits "Killing Me Softly With His Song", "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", and her soulful duets with Donny Hathaway (The Closer I Get To You, Where is The Love?) and others. Quiet Storm is the name of her third album but they are also two words that give a great introduction to the legend that she is and that she has become.
Before she came into national prominence, she was 15 and one of the youngest ever to be enrolled at Howard University. Hailing from North Carolina where she learned to sing and play piano going to church, she came to the DMV wide eyed musically and ready to go. She was a trailblazer at Howard helping conduct the choir and changing her major from piano to voice. A change that would start her career and down a road of singing like no one else had heard. Slow and in a unique, emotive drawing fashion that inspired her from her classical music training.
After giving piano lessons to various people and youngsters in the DMV, Roberta started a nightly residency at Mr. Henry's in SE Washington. People from all over came to hear Roberta sing and it was not long before she was creating a storm of her own that sent her into the 70s as one of the most sought after female performers around.
Listen to Evan honor Roberta Flack and her soulful music catalog by talking at length about her history in the DMV and what was in the air during some of her recordings and during the times she came into prominence.