Farewell

Recently, the world of soul music has lost some incredibly talented artists who played all aspects of black music. It’s truly heartbreaking to see these souls leave us, as their music touched the hearts of many. Despite their passing, their legacies will undoubtedly live on through the timeless melodies and powerful lyrics they left behind.

Let’s take a moment to honor and remember these soulful artists for the joy and inspiration they brought to so many.

Roberta Flack

Roberta Cleopatra Flack (February 10, 1937 – February 24, 2025) was an American singer and pianist known for her emotive, genre-blending ballads that spanned R&B, jazz, folk, and pop and contributed to the birth of the quiet storm radio format. Her commercial success included the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping singles “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, “Killing Me Softly with His Song”, and “Feel Like Makin’ Love”. She became the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in consecutive years.

Flack frequently collaborated with Donny Hathaway, with whom she recorded several hit duets, including “Where Is the Love” and “The Closer I Get to You”. She was one of the defining voices of 1970s popular music and remained active in the industry, later finding success with duets such as “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love” with Peabo Bryson (1983) and “Set the Night to Music” with Maxi Priest (1991).

Roy Ayers

Roy Edward Ayers Jr. (September 10, 1940 – March 4, 2025) was an American vibraphonist, record producer and composer. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several studio albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped to pioneer jazz-funk. He was a key figure in the acid jazz movement,[3] and has been described as “The Godfather of Neo Soul”. He was best known for his compositions “Everybody Loves the Sunshine”, “Running Away”, and “Freaky Deaky” and others that charted in the 1970s. At one time Ayers was listed among the performers whose music was most often sampled by rappers.

Gwen McCrea

Gwendolyn Patricia McCrae(née Mosley, December 21, 1943 – February 21, 2025) was an American singer, best known for her 1975 hit “Rockin’ Chair”, “Funky Sensation”, “All This Love That I’m Giving”, “Keep The Fires Burning” and “90% of Me”. Known in the music industry as the “Queen of Rare Groove”, McCrae’s gospel, soul, disco and funk vocals have been heavily sampled by industry leaders in dance music including Cassius, Madlib, Lady Gaga, Avicii, Cypress Hill, Mobb Deep amongst others. McCrae had hits in both the U.S.A. and Europe and was particularly successful in Europe. She performed regularly until 2012.

Chris Jasper

Christopher Howard Jasper(December 30, 1951 – February 23, 2025) was an American singer, composer and producer. Jasper was a member of the Isley Brothers from 1973 to 1983, and Isley-Jasper-Isley from 1984 to 1987. He was also a successful solo musician and record producer, recording over 17 of his own solo albums, including four urban contemporary gospel albums, all written, produced and performed, both vocally and instrumentally, by Jasper. He also produced artists for his New York City-based record label, Gold City Records. Jasper’s keyboard and Moog synthesizer work is his signature contribution to the Isley Brothers’ music of the 1970s and 1980s when the Isley Brothers were a self-contained band.

D’Wayne Wiggins

D’Wayne Patrice Wiggins(February 14, 1961 – March 7, 2025) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer best known as a founding member of the R&B/soul band Tony! Toni! Toné! He formed Tony! Toni! Toné! in 1986 with his younger half brother, Charles Ray Wiggins (later known as Raphael Saadiq), and their cousin Timothy Christian Riley. The band achieved three platinum albums and a slew of hits in the 1980s and ’90s.

Angie Stone

Angela Laverne Stone (née Brown; December 18, 1961 – March 1, 2025) otherwise known as Angie Stone was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. She rose to fame in the late 1970s as a member of the hip hop trio the Sequence. In the early 1990s, she became a member of the R&B trio Vertical Hold. Stone then signed with Arista Records to release her debut solo album Black Diamond (1999), which received a gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and spawned the single “No More Rain (In This Cloud)”.

Randy Brown

Randy Brown (1952 – March 2025) was an American R&B singer. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Brown started as a singer of doo-wop and in his local church, and became a solo singer after recording with Memphis group, The Newcomers, who had the R&B hit “Pin The Tail On The Donkey” in 1971, on Stax Records. In 1973, Brown left The Newcomers and recorded his first single “Did You Hear Yourself” on Stax Records. After several unsuccessful singles on a Stax subsidiary label, in 1975 he recorded “You Can Be Cured” and “Take a Few More Steps” on Mainstream Records, which he left one year later. Brown was persuaded to return to the studio by writer/producer Carl Hampton in 1978.

After receiving a call from Hampton, with whom he had been at school, Brown recorded four tracks that were given to Russ Regan at Parachute Records. One of the songs, “I’d Rather Hurt Myself,” left Regan impressed and the song was then recorded. The song was well received by the public and then Brown recorded additional tracks, thus completing the album Welcome To My Room, which was released in 1978 with stand out tracks “I Wanna Make Love To You” and “Love Is All We Need”.