For many, the last few years have been a challenge, at best, but for the legendary singer/actress Melba Moore, they have been a revelation. Like many of us, Ms. Moore, who has starred on Broadway, in film, and on television, found ways to entertain herself while being entertained by the new activities and innovations that developed during the pandemic. But few were as innovative as DJ D-Nice’s “Club Quarantine,” a livestream of his skills on the turntables that drew millions of viewers, earned him the NAACP Image Award for Entertainer of the Year in 2021, and helped many of us endure the monotony of being sheltered in place. The virtual dance party not only drew the likes of President and Mrs. Obama but Oprah Winfrey, Halle Berry, President Joe Biden, and almost every actor, activist, and artist known to mankind, breaking Instagram’s LIVE feed and forcing the platform to modify its capacity. And at that Club Quarantine Party, D-Nice played hits and shouted out notables as they entered the party. But when he dropped the needle on Ms. Moore’s 1978 dance classic You Stepped Into My Life, the room erupted with excitement, and those in attendance were quick to bring his attention to the fact that “MELBA MOORE IS IN HERE!” D-Nice called out her name, celebrated her presence, and introduced a new generation to an icon. So In Love, the first release from IMAGINE, her latest offering to the musical landscape, spent 3 weeks atop The UK Soul Top 30 Chart in November 2021 and returned Moore to airwaves in the United States and around the globe. The world is ready for MORE MELBA! The first single was a labor of love for the mother/daughter duo. Moore notes, “It was first brought to me by my daughter and her uncle (veteran music producer) Beau Huggins (whose sophisticated stylized sound ruled the charts with hits for Moore, Freddie Jackson, Lillo Thomas, Kenny G, Kashif, and many more). “Charli has grown up in the industry. She has diverse interests, but one thing that I know for sure is that she has a genuine love and knowledge of music. So, we thought, `why don’t we do a project together?’” Melba Moore, the Tony Award-winning, Grammy Award nominated siren, has commanded stages around the world and who has conquered Broadway in memorable roles in HAIR (1967), becoming the first black woman to replace a white woman on Broadway when she replaced Diane Keaton, PURLIE (1970) and became the first Black woman to inhabit the role of Fantine in LES MISERABLES (1995), also used the pandemic period of reflection to work on new music with her sweetest collaborator and greatest creation, her daughter Charli Huggins, who also happens to the head of The Gallery Entertainment, her own independent label. The label is set to release IMAGINE, Melba Moore’s 2022 project featuring new music and a return to her R&B roots. She is the epitome of an entertainer and a consummate performer. Honored with the likes of Diana Ross, Patti Labelle, and Nancy Wilson, Melba Moore was among those who were celebrated at Oprah’s now historic Legends Ball.
Melba Moore has done it all, twice. At the tender age of 10, Melba notes that it was then that she was introduced to music and that “I didn’t have any music in my life before my mother married my stepfather. He introduced music into our home and into my life.” From that moment forward, Melba began to develop her 5-octave, note-holding soprano that would soon bring audiences to their feet. The Newark, NJ Arts High School graduate started doing recording sessions after a chance meeting with singer/songwriter/composer Valerie Simpson (of Ashford & Simpson). That opportunity in the studio led Melba to join the company of the Broadway musical “HAIR!” First in the ensemble of the show, Melba’s name was tossed into the conversation when actress Diane Keaton left the show, and Melba took the female lead and broke all the rules, being the first Black woman to replace a white actress in a featured role on Broadway.
The journey of Melba’s career took her meteorically from there to the lead of “PURLIE,” a musical adaptation of a play written by acting husband and wife pioneers Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. That role and its musical soundtrack would earn Moore a Grammy nomination as Best New Artist in 1971 and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress. The power of her presence on Broadway got Melba noticed, and she became a virtual sensation. Without social media or email, word of mouth about her colossal talent got her on every daytime and late-night talk show, placing her in millions of households at a time when you didn’t go viral, but you could become famous. Melba Moore became so well known that network television offered her a summer variety series. Starring Melba and actor/singer Clifton Davis, who was starring on Broadway in another show, the duo, who were dating, were given the choice to bring their mass appeal into Middle America. Soon after the success of The Melba Moore/Clifton Davis Show,” it was time for her soaring soprano to take her foray into the recording studio. First signed to Buddah Records, Melba had hits like “This Is It,” “Lean On Me,” and “You Stepped Into My Life,” garnering Grammy nominations and international success. Later signed to Capitol Records, she followed that success with “Love’s Comin' At Ya,” and then a string of R&B hits followed, including "Read My Lips," which later won Moore a third Grammy nomination (for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance), making her just the third black artist after Donna Summer and Michael Jackson to be nominated in the rock category. Hits like the #1 "A Little Bit More" with Freddie Jackson and "Falling," a hypnotic ballad that features one of the longest held notes in recorded history. Moore would also record “Lift Every Voice And Sing” (the Negro National Anthem) at the behest of Dr. Dorothy Height, the president of the National Council of Negro Women, who wanted Moore to use her formidable talent to ensure that the song would reach a new generation. “It reached me, too, because I didn’t know the song either. And I asked so many of my friends (Dionne Warwick, Stephanie Mills, The Clark Sisters, and a rousing introduction from actor Louis Gossett, Jr., and the video was directed by Debbie Allen) to join me because I didn’t want a new generation to hear the song and think it was mine. IT IS OURS!”
All of this is the history and legacy that Melba Moore brings to her new project IMAGINE. Rahni Song and Chantel Hampton wrote So In Love and also co-wrote Take Me Way, which will be the next single from the album. Melba and her team also brought on writers/producers Janice Dempsey and Danny Pickering, who both co-wrote four tracks - Since I Took My Heart Back, Take Her Picture Down, Joy and Pain, and Forever. Melba’s rich and soulful sound harkens back to her chart-topping successes in the 1970s and 1980s. However, “I have lots of younger people bringing me new music,” Melba says, but stands soundly on his musical history, noting that “we're the foundation of it.” “Since God has given me my good health and ability to continue to do my work, it's my privilege now to say, ‘This is where it came from, this is how it was, and I'm here to pass it on to you.’ It is not only the foundation of Afrocentric culture, but it's part of America and world history.” And Melba Moore is soundly rooted in that history!
