Flack’s contribution is a track with her longtime friend, Valerie Simpson (of Ashford & Simpson fame) performing the words of Maya Angelou titled, “She Came Home Blameless.” Flack’s longtime manager and friend Suzanne Mino Koga explains how “She Came Home Blameless” came about: “In 2019, Joan Martin and I took Roberta into Atlantic Studios to record a song that she repeatedly and spontaneously would sing (post-stroke). It seemed to be a spiritual song, but no one could find a record of it anywhere. Her voice was changed and we thought we could not release it.”
Fast-forward to last year, the engineer who recorded it at Atlantic, Ebonie Smith, reached out to Flack’s team to ask if she could include her track in a spoken word project she was creating. “We weren’t planning on releasing it as Roberta’s vocals were so different from what her fans knew and loved from her catalog. But when we were presented with being a part of this project, we thought that the imperfections and texture of her voice at this time in her life perfectly express the story in Maya Angelou’s poem, ‘The Mothering Blackness” which Valerie Simpson so beautifully read. After careful consideration, we knew Roberta’s recording should be a part of this remarkable project,” adds Koga.
album cover – On Imagination
This was a personal passion project for Smith. “The poems on this album are restorative,” explains Smith, who received her first GRAMMY® Award certificate and RIAA-certified Platinum plaque for work as an assistant engineer on Atlantic Records’ historic Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording). “They helped me heal and recenter after Covid. The language is challenging, requiring the listener to work for a deeper understanding, but those who make the effort will find the words of these poets truly powerful and transformative.”
On Imagination is available now wherever you buy records.
