Rodney

When defining cool, all fingers point in the direction of Miles Davis. Yes, this is merely the opinion of his musical peers, but one that absolutely agree with. Miles received his first trumpet at the age of 13, which later allowed him to be accepted into Juilliard. At the age of 18 he was living in New York due to his enrollment in Juilliard, but this move was to connect with musical artist Bird & Diz.  

In the 50′s Davis led small groups of music to produce The Birth of the Cool. This movement challenged the current sound of music by introducing bebop and hard-bop. During this time he began to display his awareness for talent around him, which he was responsible for introducing Sonny Rollins, Percy Heath, and Jackie McLean. 

Today when I woke up I could not decide who I wanted to bring awareness to for Black Music Month. I even reached out to a couple of my friends and their suggestions just were not fitting. I started to browse the internet for my answer, but nothing was suitable for today’s post. Then it came to me that I should write about songstress, Roberta Flack. 

Ms. Roberta is known musically in the genres of jazz, pop, rhythm and blues, and folk music. She is the first artist to win a Grammy for “Record of the Year” consecutively in 1973 and 1974. Today, she is noted to be the only solo artist who has done this.

Growing up in a musical family, Roberta’s interest were drawn to music. She admired artist Mahalia Jackson after witnessing her sing in a Baptist church while growing up. Following this moment Roberta decided that she would embark on path of choosing music for her life. She started playing the piano, which she excelled tremendously. This talent landed her a full music scholarship to the prestigious historically black college in Washington, D.C -- Howard University. Being one of the youngest students enrolled she began leaving her mark in the music department by becoming the assisting conductor of the university choir and her leading involvement in the production “Aida”. 

If you unaware of Ms. Roberta Flack’s contribution to African American Music you can look upon artist such as Lauryn Hill and Beyonce Knowles. Roberta Flack is the originator of the famous 90′s hit “Killing Me Softly with His Song”. Also, Luther Vandross featuring Beyonce Knowles “The Closer I Get To You” was an original of hers and classmate Donny Hathaway. Not only has she been influential in the lives of music artist today she has contributed to the African American music by being a music school teacher prior to her success in the music industry. Ms. Flack has been recoginized by Eta Delta chapter of Tau Beta Sigma for her promotion in music education in youth.