Lalah Hathaway released Made In Chicago on Thursday (Oct 1), the day her late father, Donny Hathaway, would have turned 81. The nine-song album, her ninth studio release, came out through her own Hathaway Entertainment imprint in partnership with The SRG/ILS Group, and she co-produced every track with longtime collaborator Phil Beaudreau.
Two of those songs have been out since the summer. "47th Street," the lead single featuring Chicago poet J. Ivy, arrived Aug. 7 and named the South Side street where her father's family lived. We unpacked that one in our look at how "47th Street" taps the soul of Chicago. The second single, "Can't Let Go," followed Aug. 28 and now sits fourth in the sequence.
That leaves seven songs that listeners are hearing for the first time today: "So Smart," "Follow," "Every Little Thing," "Rainbo," "Someday," "Time" and the closer, "Magic." At 6:52, "Magic" is the longest cut on a record that runs 39 minutes and 22 seconds, and "Every Little Thing" is the only other song that pushes past five minutes.
The credits read more like a jazz session booking than a standard R&B session. Beaudreau plays trumpet and guitar on top of producing, Michael Aaberg handles piano and Rhodes, and Justin Tyson sits behind the drums. Amber Navran of Moonchild and Hailey Niswanger split the saxophone parts, and Elena Pinderhughes plays flute.
"Can't Let Go" borrows from outside Chicago, interpolating The Stylistics' "You Are Everything," the 1971 Philadelphia soul ballad written by Thom Bell and Linda Creed. Hathaway has pitched the single as quiet storm material. When she announced the album, she described the full set as, "I feel these songs live at the intersection of nostalgia and melancholy."
At least one new title names a specific place in the city. "Rainbo" shares its name with the Rainbo roller rink that sat on North Clark Street, miles up the lakefront from the South Side blocks "47th Street" was written about. Hathaway has said the record grew out of her own childhood in Chicago and the music she absorbed there, from Earth, Wind & Fire to Stevie Wonder.
Lalah was born in Chicago on Dec. 16, 1968, and Donny was born there on Oct. 1, 1945, which is why the release date was locked months ago. We traced that through-line in our September piece on how Made In Chicago connects her story to Donny Hathaway and the Great Migration.
Hathaway holds five Grammy wins from 13 nominations, including Best R&B Album for Lalah Hathaway Live in 2017. Her last studio offering, 2024's Vantablack, picked up nominations for Best R&B Album and for Best Traditional R&B Performance, the latter for "No Lie" with Michael McDonald.
Her tour resumes the next night at the Charleston Music Hall in South Carolina on Friday (Oct 2). From there she plays two nights at Judson's Live in Orlando and two more at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia.
New York gets her twice this fall. On Oct. 11 she plays a duo set with Robert Glasper at the Blue Note Jazz Club during his eighth Robtober residency. The two go back to her 2015 Grammy for "Jesus Children," which she won with the Robert Glasper Experiment. On Nov. 15 she headlines Sony Hall.
Between those dates she's booked for Blue Note Napa Summer Sessions on Oct. 24, the Soul Train Cruise in November and the Jazz Legacy Foundation weekend in Hampton, Virginia. The run closes at Detroit's Sound Board Theater on Dec. 10.
Stream Made In Chicago by clicking below:
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