Lalah Hathaway in Amsterdam
One of the most pivotal moments last Monday at Amsterdam’s Paradiso happened during a guitar solo medley by guitarist Jubu Smith: among the three tracks he played was “Sweet Thing” by Rufus featuring Chaka Khan. And the whole crowd sang the lyrics out loud. No offense here but this is something that would never ever happen elsewhere, especially not in Germany. And it shows once again why this kind of music is much more appreciated at our neighbors and why artists like Lalah Hathaway presumably aren’t booked in Germany.
But the star of the evening was Lalah of course. She opened with a couple of tracks from her most recent album “VANTABLACK”, among them the wonderful “No Lies”. With her exceptionally warm voice which seems to come out of her as natural as can be, she had the enthusiastic crowd on her side from the start. Her repertoire on this evening was pretty diverse with a couple of soul classics thrown in. Lalah delivered a pretty fancy, lovely version of Randy Crawford’s “One Day I’ll Fly Away”, an amazingly soulful “Golden Time Of Day” by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly”, and an Anita Baker medley including “Same Ole Love”, “Angel”, and “Caught Up In The Rapture”, each one far superior to the originals I might add.
She also went back to her debut album, released in 1990, with popular dance tracks like “Baby Don’t Cry” and, as one of the encores, a very enticing, jazzed-up version of “Something”, written by Brenda Russell. And sure enough, she also included a track by her father, the late great Donny Hathaway: she really excelled on a beautiful version of “Love, Love, Love”. There were longer instrumental stretches during the show and a surprise act by superb singer Sandra “Ghetto Heaven” St. Victor during the encore. If there is one minor disappointment to this otherwise highly enjyoyable evening, it’s the fact that all background vocals were canned. Needless to say, those songs which didn’t have any background vocals were far more convincing. Other than that, it was an outstanding evening with one of the most satisfying voices around. A real treat.
Here are the remaining European tour dates:
3/12 Paris – New Morning
3/14 Bognor Regis – Butlin’s Bognor Regis Resort
3/15 Margate – Olby’s Soul Cafe
3/16 London – Jazz Cafe
3/19 Sofia – Sofia Live Club
3/20 Belgrad – Bitef Art Cafe
3/22 Ljubljana – Center Urbane Kulture Kino Šiška
