Disco and R&B singer Melba Moore is recording a new album, "Forever Moore," for Universal Motown this summer, according to the NY Post. The album will be her first in almost 20 years.
Melba Moore is a Tony Award winner and recently finished a limited-engagement run at the Café Carlyle. In the premiere of "Forever Moore" the four-time Grammy-nominated Moore traces a remarkable musical journey reaching into the past and leading to the present.
In "Forever Moore" Moore reaches into the American Songbook for some early influences, passes through her hit-making 70's (she was a Best New Artist Grammy nominee in 1971) and opens it up with a treasure trove of seminal R&B touchstones, culminating with her current hit "Love Is." In the course of the evening Moore pays tribute to Ella, Lena and Aretha, the sophisticated ladies whose profound influences on her art and career she both acknowledges and celebrates. The music director is Levi Barcourt.
Melba Moore starred on Broadway in "Les Miserables" (as Fantine), with
Eartha Kitt in "Timbuktu," and in the original cast of "Hair" in 1967. She also appeared in the Broadway production of "Inacent Black" and toured with the 2006 National Tour of "Brooklyn."
She received her Tony Award for her portrayal of Lutiebelle in "Purlie" in 1970.
Among her notable recordings are "This Is It" in 1976 (Billboard Hot 100 Top 20); "Lean on Me," also 1976, for her third Grammy nomination; and "You Stepped Into My Life," released in 1979 on Epic Records, hitting the R&B Top 20. From the 80's she had "Love's Comin' at Ya" with Capital Records (which reached the top 5 on the R&B charts), and the dance single "Read My Lips" which ear
Ned Moore her fourth Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. "A Little Bit More," with
FrEddie Jackson in 1986, was her first #1 hit. Her second was "Falling" the following year. Her "Lift Every Voice and Sing" on the album "Soul Exposed" -- with the voices of
Stevie Wonder,
FrEddie Jackson,
Aretha Franklin,
Anita Baker and
Stephanie Mills -- was inducted into the
Library of Congress, and is often referred to as the Negro National Anthem. In 2009 she released "The Gift of Love," duets with
Phil Perry, on Shanachie Records.
In addition to a short-lived television variety show in the 70's with
Clifton Davis, Moore starred in her own series, "Melba," which premiered on CBS in 1986.
Photo Credit: Kevin Thomas Garcia
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