Salute to Melba Moore on Her Birthday
🎂Melba Moore (aka Beatrice Melba Hill) was born October 29, 1945 in New York City — she was raised in Harlem. She is an actress, singer, performer, teacher and activist. Her father Teddy Hill was a multi-instrumentalist, big band leader and the manager of Minton’s Playhouse. Her mother, a singer Gertrude Melba Smith remarried the big band leader and pianist Clement Leroy Moorman and relocated to Newark, New Jersey, where Melba graduated from Arts High School. The singer’s five-octave voice earned her many accolades including; a Grammy nomination for her cover of Aretha Franklin’s hit “Lean On Me”; her memorable Tony Award winning role as “LuttieBelle GussieMae Jenkins” in Purlie; later she became the first black woman to perform the role of “Fantine” in Les Miserables. She is the first female pop/R&B artist to perform a non-operatic solo concert at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House and at the Olympia in Paris.
Publisher Ronald Bunn reminisces about the celebration Melba supported in 1978 ROUTES Salutes Melba Moore Photo Montage at the Copacabana in New York City. “I will be forever thankful for the generosity and support gave Routes Magazine in 1978. A couple hundred people, paying $25 a piece joined us for the evening. That occasion helped to assisting us to pay our bills.”
Moore’s produced version of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was entered into the United States Congressional Record as the official Negro National Anthem in 1990. Melba continues to record while working on various music projects. The Unveiling Of Melba | 5/1978. Melba Moore – Artist Talk with Ron Scott and Performance
John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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