Live [Import, Live]

Donny Hathaway | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 16, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Live
• Label: Atco Records
• ASIN: B000005S6W
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,990 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #15 in Music > Imports > R&B

Track Listings

1. What's Goin' On

2. The Ghetto

3. Hey Girl

4. You've Got A Friend

5. Little Ghetto Boy

6. We're Still Friends

7. Jealous Guy

8. Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything)

Editorial Reviews

Japanese pressing of his top 20, 1972 album for Atco, pressed in a miniature lp style gatefold sleeve, recorded live atthe Troubadour in Hollywood & at the Bitter End in New York. Eight tracks, including covers of 'What's Goin' On', 'You've Got A Friend' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic In Every Sense of the Word!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, February 13, 2001

By 

Raider Jack "Jackie D Gray-Romeyn" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Live (Audio CD)

I have been searching for this album for years on CD and now it appears my search is thankfully over. Donny's influence on me was just as profound, if not more so, as Aretha's. Mr. Hathaway was a force to be reckoned with. These wondrous performances rival the other live album "In Performance!" Donny was the consumate muscian influencing countless singers and instrumentalists. It is even rather painful sometimes hearing his daughter, wonderful in her own right, who has many of his flourishes as the timbres of their voices are remarkably close. In any event, this is a must for any music collection. His opening cover of "What's Goin On" was an immediate smash in the day and many bands copied this particular session, myself included. But get it, sit back, and this will undoubltedly prompt you to try and get everything this man did, most notably any live performances because this is where Donny always shines. Awesome piano work. Flawless vocals. Tight band. Simply excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential to your soul, July 9, 2002

By 

greg taylor (Portland, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Live (Audio CD)

This is one of the all-time classics of soul jazz. Originally released on the Atlantic label in 1972, it is a live performance of an absolutely amazing band playing their hearts out to a very appreciative and vocal audience in what looks like a club setting. I would love to have been there. The band is Donny Hathaway on vocals and piano, Mike Howard on rythym and lead guitar, Cornell Dupree on the other lead guitar, Willie Weeks on the bass, and a conga player who I think is named Earl DeRoy and a drummer whose name I have forgotten and is uncredited. This is too bad because whoever was part of this project deserves to be remembered.
Donny's vocal style is classic with changes in intonation and timbre as richly textured as Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles. He tells you part of the story of the lyrics by how he sings a phrase. This guy seems a natural wonder but his skill was probably the result of a lot of work. One of the other reviewers compares his piano playing to Les McCann: maybe a little less harmonically advanced yet technically as good and perhaps even more soulful.
Cornel Dupree was one of the great sidemen of the period and later starred in Stuff which he co-led with Eric Gale. He shines on this album with solos on We're Still Friends and Voices Inside (Everything is Everything). He has a classic Fender tone- sharp, piercing and bluesy. You can hear Albert Collins in his playing and the whole history of Texas guitar. You will notice that other reviewers mention how much Stevie Ray loved this album and band. Cornell is part of the reason why.
Willie Weeks the base player is solid thoroughout. He is outstandingly funky on Voices Inside (Everything is Everything).
Listen to the album sometime just focusing on his bass for a great lesson in the art of the groove. Heck, listen to this album sometime focusing on any of these guys for a lesson in how to play that instrument beautifully within a group context. Each of these guys knows how to make the others sound even better and they all blend into a beautiful overall group sound.
And then there is the audience. When Donny sings You've Got A Friend the audience takes up the chorus without even being asked and keeps it up throughout. Donny goes with it and basically sings around and with the audience. Very very cool. Very professional.
I have owned several thousands CDs, tapes or albums in my time. There are probably less than a hundred that I think of as being iconic, unique, and near perfect. That I would change in no way whatsoever. This is one of the few. This is a sweet and honest presentation of one man's (very large) musical soul being expressed with the help of a band of professionals whose musical skill is the effort of a lifetime in front of an audience who is very hip to what they are hearing. A stone cold soul classic.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Donny Hathaway Album; an R & B Classic!, April 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Live (Audio CD)

I first heard this album in the summer of 1972 at my girlfriend's house. "Jealous Guy" was the first track I heard, and I asked my lady who the singer was. She told me it was someone named Donny Hathaway. So, I immediately went out and bought the record. Thus began my nearly 30-year love affair for this album.

"Donny Hathaway Live" is a joyous, but bittersweet effort. Only the classic Donny Hathaway/Roberta Flack duet album compares to the monumental achievements of "DH Live." None of Hathaway's other recorded efforts, including his 2nd live album, "In Performance," were ever able to effectively showcase his musical talents and exquisite vocals. This makes "DH Live" a gem of enormous importance in light of the new wave of '70s "old school" music currently being made by the likes of D'Angelo and Maxwell. In fact, D'Angelo's funky, but flawed "Live At The Jazz Cafe In London, 1996" sounds like a tribute to the stirring principles laid down on "DH Live."

Hathaway's album begins with a fresh interpretation of Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin'On"--a bold move when you consider that Gaye's masterwork album of the same name was simultaneously on the charts and redefining the boundaries of soul at the time of Hathaway's release. Part of Hathaway's genius was his ability to successfully transform Gaye's insightful street testament into a jazzy soul sermon--a fact borne out by the reaction of the audience.

And, that's another great thing about "DH Live." The call and response between the artist and the audience is mixed right up front with the music--as if you're actually sitting in the club hearing this music for the first time. (A far cry from today's "live" recordings with muted crowd response and post-concert studio "sweetenings.") The result is an emotional experience that approaches the ferver of a church revival, as on Hathaway's take on Carol King's "You've Got A Friend."

Surprisingly, Hathaway is not the only star on this album. Hathaway describes him on this cd as "the baddest bass player in the county--Willie Weeks!" And "badd" he is. Weeks, who would go on to work with several legendary bands (including the Doobie Bros.) and artists during the '70s unleashes a funky bass solo for all time on "Everything Is Everything." Just when you think it couldn't possibly get any funkier! His top-to-bottom bass playing literally "sings" on each track.

You must remember that James Brown was still the King of Soul with Aretha as his Queen,in 1972. Motown was still at its peak. But, with "DH Live," a new, sophisticated, soul sound was emerging. It would take root throughout the '70s--inspite of the later onslaught of disco.

And then, there's Donny's voice--soulful beyond description, and with a smooth, grace-of-style untraceable to any soul artist before him. Hathaway proves himself to be a true vocal original in the soul/gospel vein.

It is unfortunate that most people who know of Donny Hathaway only know him as Roberta Flack's duet partner on a few hits. He never became a star in his own rite with the pop crowd. And, with his sad and controversial death in 1979, "DH Live" became an obscure title that was even out-of-print for a while.

Perhaps the time is now for a reconsideration of Hathaway's work, and particularly this album. Listen to "Donny Hathaway Live" again and again and again as I have over the past few decades. Soul, R & B, Funk, Jazz--call it what you want. It doesn't get any better than this. It's the definitive Donny Hathaway album--and, it's one of the greatest live dates ever recorded.