Published: Monday, October 10, 1994
Page: 10B
By: By Dave Larson/Pop Music Critic
LIFESTYLE
Flack, the fourth president in the university's 30-year history, has the good fortune to share his lineage with Grammy Award-winning singer Roberta Flack, who performed in her cousin's honor at WSU's Ervin J. Nutter Center.
Her concert was a more elegant presentation than the typical Nutter Center pop show, befitting the nature of the event. Round, cloth-covered tables took the place of the usual rows of seats on the arena's floor, and a majority of the 2,069 dignitaries, guests and patrons in attendance wore semi-formal attire.
The club-like seating arrangement, coupled with Roberta Flack's relaxed presence and refined approach, gave the evening an intimate feel.
Performing with an ensemble of six musicians and three backing singers, Flack opened with her 1988 No. 1 R&B hit, Oasis. It was evident from the onset that even though the singer is celebrating her 25th year as a recording artist, her voice has, if anything, improved with the passing years.
Flack's musical direction, however, has taken a number of interesting turns, as demonstrated by her jazz-influenced renditions of Sweet Georgia Brown and Feel Like Makin' Love, with which she hit No. 1 in 1974. The song was greeted with a collective sigh from the crowd.
She later performed a cover of B.B. King's melancholy blues standard, Thrill Is Gone, with an upbeat, celebratory air, and Al Green's classic Let's Stay Together as a spiritual ballad. Both songs will be featured on Flack's new album, Roberta, which is scheduled to be released on Oct. 18.
But it was the singer's older material that fans and fellow members of the Flack family - she commented several times about the number of people "who look like me" that were sitting down front - came to hear.
Seated at a grand piano, Flack performed a richly nuanced version of Killing Me Softly With His Song, for which she received Grammys for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal. Joined by backing vocalist Dennis Collins, she sang Where Is the Love and Tonight I Celebrte My Love, duets she recorded with Donny Hathaway and Peabo Bryson, respectively.
The disco-era duet, Back Together Again, which closed her set, was the show's only disappointment, but Flack more than compensated with beautifully understated encores of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Amazing Grace.