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The 3 most underrated female soul singers
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Roberta Flack's Quiet Fire
A few weeks back, I devised a list of three below-the-radar male singers. Now it's the women's turn. We're getting more specific this time around as we focus on female soul singers. The Aretha Franklins of the world get plenty of love and for good reason. Yet for every powerhouse female soul singing diva, there are three women who float below the surface, perhaps celebrated for a single song but mostly forgotten by the younger generations. Now it's time to rediscover three of them.
Minnie Riperton
Every time the subject of Maya Rudolph comes up and I mention something about "her mom" people give me blank looks. Furthermore, once I tell folks that Maya's mom is Minnie Riperton, the lack of recognition continues. Time to settle that confusion once and for all. Minnie Riperton was a fabulous soul singer of the late 60's and 70's who possessed a stunning 5.5 octave vocal range. She began with the psych-soul outfit The Rotary Connection and then went solo. She had a massive hit with "Loving You" (which most people will recognize) and then tragically contracted breast cancer. She died at the age of 31. And yes, she's Maya Rudolph's mother. Essential listening: "Les Fleur," "Respect" and "Love and Its Glory."
Roberta Flack
For someone with so many hits, Roberta Flack still manages to get no true love. The Fugees cover of "Killing Me Softly" helped make Roberta relevant again. Songs like "Feel Like Makin' Love" and Flack's duet with Donny Hathaway "Where is the Love" continue to garner much airplay. Yet Flack's brand of quiet storm vocals never seems to get the accolades they deserve. On Roberta's first three album ( First Take, Chapter Two and Quiet Fire) she majestically melds soul, folk and even jazz to deliver several tasteful performances. Flack doesn't have the sheer power of a Nina Simone or the ability of Aretha Franklin, but her steady, yearnful style fits her song selection perfectly. Essential listening: "Gone Away," "Sweet Bitter Love" and "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye."
Millie Jackson
Some say Millie invented hip-hop. Not quite. But her unabashedly perverse half-sung/half-spoken style definitely laid the path that Lil Kim and Foxy Brown happily stepped all over. Millie has many solid albums, but nothing rivals the stunning infidelity concept album Caught Up. Built mostly of covers, Millie recasts the songs to fit her story. The first half of the album is from the mistress' perspective and the second is from the wife's perspective. It's complex, raunchy and totally unique. Essential listening: "If Loving You Is Wrong I Don't Want to be Right," "It's All Over but the Shouting," and the rest of Caught Up.
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