Lalah Hathaway - Self Portrait
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Free Music Notes for Self Portrait
Free Music Review: High Quality Music
Hit: 5 Stars
Lalah Hathaway breathes fresh air into the regenerated Stax label with what is possibly her best album to date. It's definitely my favourite already. If you're anything like me, and you wonder where all the good music has gone, aghast at the ever-increasing paucity of deep meaningful soul and the ever-increasing dominance of superficial, gimmicky R&B, then this CD might reassure you. Lalah's lineage is not only clear in her warm vocal tone, style and phrasing but also in the kind of music she chooses to make. Donny would undoubtedly be proud.
Hathaway writes a great deal of the album herself (with co-writing credits mainly going to her producers) and Rex Rideout, who had critical success last year with Ledisi's Lost & Found, takes care of the majority of the production work. He and Hathway had worked together before but not to this extent. Hathaway herself takes up the rest of the production with help from Kenneth Crouch, Terrace Martin, Paula Gallitano and Manuel Hugas & Wiboud Burkens.
The album kicks off with the obviously radio-intended "let go", co-written and featuring vocals by my man Rahsaan Patterson and while a pleasant enough mid-tempo head-nodder (though personally I could have done without the vocoder), the song only hints at the magic to be found within the album. My personal favourites include the smooth jazz-influenced ballads "on your own", "for always", "that was then", "learning to swim" (which features fretless bass by Marcus Miller, no less), "little girl", (which actually contains the spoken voice of the great man himself; an interview excerpt from the album These Songs for You, Live!), "what goes around" and the brilliant album closer, "tragic inevitability".
Noteworthy if not a firm favourite right now, is "1 mile". It also sounds like it might have radio in mind. It certainly has a definite hip-hop/r&b edge and contains a rap I thought was by Andre 3000 when I first heard it but is actually by a dude called Andre Edwards aka "Bokie".
This is definitely high quality music - in my opinion of course - with deep, steamy bass lines and jazzy keyboard chords, and I say a huge thank you to Lalah Hathaway for giving us something decent to listen to for a change. Decidedly recommended.
Also highly recommended: 2004's Outrun the Sky, 1999's The Song Lives On (with Joe Sample) and even 1990's Lalah Hathaway. For me, the Gary Taylor ballad "i'm coming back" and the Angela Winbush one, "i gotta move on" are worth the price of that last CD I mentioned, all on their own.
Free Music Review: MASTERFULLY DONE!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
I've perused some of the reviews here and, not that it matters to me, its just amazing how some folks negatively perceive something so completely different from the obvious consensus. Don't get it twisted, yes: everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But statements like, "a bit too hip-hopish", "Lalah now sounds like everybody else", "few of the songs hold up", "sounds like it was recorded 7 or 8 years ago" proves not only that you can't please everyone, but that some folks JUST DON'T GET IT!, DON'T HAVE A CLUE or perhaps they are just TONE DEAF or HEARING IMPAIRED (not to insult the hearing impaired in any way).
The truth is that this has got to be the best work of any artist this year!! And yet, since she ain't a Mary J Blige or Biancé the shallow pop music industry will likely not recognize her work. But, this is Lalah at her best and then some. Every track is inviting. Initially I only liked tracks 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 & then 2 & 10 grabbed me too. I admit I was not as moved by tracks 5 & 6 but 5 has now grown on me too. Hey, when you get a CD that has more than 3 or 4 great songs, that's sayin' somethin! In this case, almost every track is a veritable masterpiece.
Someone here compared her to Angie Stone. In my opinion its the other way around - Lalah is the standard to which others of her era should be compared. Her performance, as always, is flawless & the music compliments & provides the perfect back-dropped balance and contrast against her beautiful alto timbre. Some of the tracks do have a non-hardcore hip-hop sound while others are in the neo-soul vein while still others have that classic r&b sound and in either case it sounds good on her. The fact that she is able to do so without compromising her own unique musical identity is a testament to her wonderful craft. But, the bottom line is Lalah is not bound by any labels - call it r&b, soul, neo-soul, jazz or whatever - She knows just what to do and how to do it. That voice alone is enough to melt you!
And - so what if she sounds a bit like her dad, that's a good thing - let's face it, good apples don't fall far from the tree. I mean -- let's be realistic here, she is her father's child & there's bound to be some genetic traits that are inherited - so she can't help that any more then she could change her skin color. But, again, it's clear she has her own unique style and its called, LALAH. BUY THE CD!!!! It's bound to be considered a classic.
Free Music Review: I Have Fallen For Lalah's Voice
Hit: 5 Stars
I've heard nice things about Lalah Hathaway's singing and her voice, and have even heard a couple of songs that breezed by my ears, like the song "Forever, For always, For love." I like that song but I hadn't heard Lalah Hathaway sing live before, so it was an opportunity for me to see what she's really made of on Sunday, November 28th during the Soul Train Awards. During the tribute to Anita Baker with an AWEsome line up of singers like Chrisette Michelle, Tamia, Faith Evans, Kem w/Rachell Farrell, Guapale and someone else whose name I forgot, but was good, and to my surprise, Lalah Hathaway, I was thorougly impressed by Lalah Hathaway's sound. I was laying on the couch relaxed while enjoying the tribute, and once Lalah was introduced, and begin to belt out the song "Angel" by Anita Baker, suddenly, I found myself up looking at the TV like "OMG! Where have I been??" because I never knew Lalah Hathaway was THAT awesome. Within an instant I was "captured!" Her voice gave me chills. Her voice is luxurious. Her octaves are extraordinary and so RICH, that they just poured out into the air like honey. I saw people in the audience on their feet who appeared to have had the same response as I, when she ever so slightly guided the melody of the song in a low alto tone, and she did it so effortlessly. You didn't know where she was going with it because it started off rather deep, but as she kept singing I began to trust her as she kept it going, and it was simply incredible. She has something like an alto/contralto type tone that suits her well and I just love love loved it! I must have rewinded my DVR 25 times just to see her part over and over because I was blown away by her vocals. I couldn't get enough. So NOW, I have ordered her latest CD, Self Portrait, since I am NOW offically a Lalah Hathaway fan! I hope she reads this because I want her to know that she is OUTstanding and I appreciate her gift. I can't wait until she comes back to Detroit, Michigan! Front row concert tickets for me!Free Music Review: Finding the Center of Soul
Hit: 5 Stars
Lalah Hathaway is an established artist of the world of jazz, but for this listener this is an introduction to the gifts of an amazing communicator. Having never heard her previous albums so richly praised by critics and fans, this 'Self Portrait' is a breathtaking awakening. The beautiful Hathaway is different from her colleagues in many ways and it is this difference that makes her singing so unique.
There are two songs on this consistently fine CD that stand out as examples of her qualities of bringing both fine musicianship (which includes an uncanny ability to find the center of pitch of each of the notes she sings, a sense of how to arch a line to find the most direct mode of communicating the words married to the tune, etc) and her almost timid sense of being an extraordinary performer: 'Learning To Swim' and 'What Goes Around'. Not that she is unsuccessful in the rest of this set of fine performances. It is simply that in these two vocals Hathaway seems to rise out of the mood of the accompaniment and enter the atmosphere of the great communicators.
Hathaway's voice is lush cream, warm and sensuous, but at the same time her inherent musicianship is always at hand to assure that the singing remains clear and informed. Perhaps as more lovers of fine music - especially soft jazz - discover her, Lalah Hathaway will embrace the fame associated with the particularly gifted young singers. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, June 09
Free Music Review: Let Go
Hit: 5 Stars
and enjoy this new effort from one of the underrated singers in the music business right now. With "Self Portrait" Lalah opens up with a more R&B tinged track "Let Go" about a guy that's she's heard enough from with the promises he never fulfills and all.
Throughout this 12 track effort Lalah is at her best from track to track whether its about her childhood, her moms and pops "Little Girl" which is very personal and kind of sad. But uplifting at the same time, she's just able to bring out the soul of a song and almost make you feel like its happening to you.
She writes on every song of this cd and it's evident throughout that its about things that she's gone through in life recently and in the past as well ie the album name "Self Portrait". This release will only serve to add to her growing list of excellent albums released and her following should increase as well.
"Self Portrait" is one cd purchase that you really need to experience for yourself as these words can only tell you my experiences while listening to this.