Throwback Thursday goes back to Roberta, Peabo and one stacked 1980 stage
Throwback Thursday: Roberta Flack 1980 Live & More with Peabo Bryson — and Luther Vandross in the backing-vocal lineup.
Recorded at the Holiday Star Theater in Merrillville, Indiana, the concert captures Flack and Bryson at the beginning of a musical partnership that would eventually give them the 1983 duet smash “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love.” But this 1980 set already had the chemistry fully in place.
Throwback Thursday
Roberta Flack & Peabo Bryson — Live & More
Two powerhouse voices, one 1980 stage and a backing-vocal lineup that included Luther Vandross.
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Live & More arrived in 1980 as a double album pairing live material with new studio duets. Produced by Flack and Bryson for Atlantic Records, it found the two singers moving between solo showcases and duets without either voice having to shrink itself to make room for the other.
The Holiday Star Theater performance also had one hell of a supporting cast. Luther Vandross was among Flack’s backing vocalists, while Marcus Miller handled bass and backing vocals. Long before Vandross became one of the defining solo voices of the 1980s, he was already helping give performances like this their lift.
And the setlist is pure Roberta-and-Peabo goodness: “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Only Heaven Can Wait (For Love),” “You Are My Heaven,” “The Closer I Get to You,” “Back Together Again” and more.
What makes this one especially worth digging out now is how relaxed the whole thing feels. Flack never needed to oversell a note, Bryson could move from velvet to full-force soul without warning, and the backing singers — Vandross included — fill out the arrangements without crowding the leads. Everybody is doing exactly what the song needs.
The resulting Live & More album reached the Top 10 on the U.S. R&B albums chart, and listening back all these decades later, it sounds less like a period piece and more like a reminder of what happens when truly great singers are simply allowed to sing.
Dig out Roberta Flack, Peabo Bryson, Luther Vandross and the full band doing their thing in 1980 right below.
Roberta Flack & Peabo Bryson — Live at Holiday Star Theater, 1980
The 1980 Holiday Star Theater performance features Roberta Flack with Peabo Bryson and a backing-vocal lineup that included Luther Vandross.
Source: Atlantic Records; Rhino; archival performance video.
