Roberta Flack

Photo By John Anderson

Roberta Flack

Paramount Theatre, Sept. 3

After a week watching scenes of hell on TV, it was a blessing to hear songs of love sung by a master vocalist of the romantic jazz ballad, Roberta Flack. Although a sprained ankle made for a painful entrance before the nearly full Paramount Theatre Saturday night, once Flack took her place at the piano and began making music with her superb fivepiece band and two backup singers (the Real Artist Symposium), the audience was enraptured. Flack may have been hobbled, but vocally she was as bright, vivid, and lithe as the first time she wowed audiences in the Seventies. Flack and the RAS put on an evening of old-school standards, delivered with impeccable style. Vintage songs like "Sweet Georgia Brown" and Marvin Gaye's "Mercy, Mercy Me" were filtered between new tunes like the bouncy "Don't Rush Your Life," due on her soon-to-be-released new album, and Flack classics like "The Closer I Get to You," "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," and "Tonight I Celebrate My Love." The audience welcomed each number warmly, Flack sometimes encouraging everyone to join her on the chorus. Everyone surely heard at least one Flack favorite, but hearing her sing "Killing Me Softly With His Song" live was as astonishing and tender as a first kiss. Afterward, she beamed, "That was perfect, guys." And it was. More perfect than seemed humanly possible. The entire concert was a much-needed piece of heaven here on Earth.