In their first performance as a duo, the singer and musician took the audience on a journey through joy, sorrow, and more
Lalah Hathaway and Robert Glasper performing at Blue Note New York on Sunday October 11.
Trae Jada Mitchell
Grammy-winning pianist Robert Glasper and singer Lalah Hathaway’s one-night-only set of performances at New York City’s Blue Note jazz club was full of smiles, sobs, and storytelling — along with an exchange with a heckler and an appearance by another legendary artist in the building.
Glasper and Hathaway did their first duo performance on a rainy Sunday night as part of the former’s eighth annual Robtober residency at the Blue Note jazz club in New York City, where Glasper is joined by various musicians over a four-week span of shows (other guests this year include Wyclef Jean, Questlove, Kem, and others). VIBE attended the 8 p.m. showing; a second performance followed.
“This is just practice for me. I want to do an album with just us,” Hathaway mused, to roars of approval from the tightly-packed Blue Note audience. After Glasper gushed that Hathaway was one of his top five living vocalists, he admitted that they hadn’t rehearsed before that night’s show. Certain talent, he reasoned, doesn’t require a rehearsal.
The duo began the show with a rendition of Miles Davis’ “Stella By Starlight,” followed by a performance of “No Lie,” from Hathaway’s 2024 album VANTABLACK; Glasper shared how he regularly texts Hathaway videos of him and his wife singing the song together while getting high at home. “No Lie” transitioned into a duet of Billy Preston and Syretta Wright’s 1979 duet “With You I’m Born Again,” with Glasper slipping in jokes as they worked in real time to find their corresponding notes. “I sang a duet with Lalah Hathaway, y’all!” Glasper exclaimed afterward, before jovially striking a pose onstage.
Trae Jada Mitchell
Glasper is known for carrying a lighthearted tone to his performances, and this night was full of jokes and stories. When Hathaway mused that they should sing a collection of Black duets together and Teena Marie came up, Glasper said she was one of three white singers who Black people can comfortably claim as their own (“I’d eat Michael McDonald’s greens,” he admitted). Later, he comically told a story about meeting Hathaway at the now-defunct B.B. King’s to see her perform; he became starstruck after realizing the legendary Prince had slipped into the venue. The two shared a moment of excitement as they were impressed by Hathaway’s vocals on stage.
He also shared multiple stories about the duo working together in the studio for their Grammy-winning collaborations, using them as precursors to performances. He reminisced about being stunned that Hathaway recorded her vocals for “Cherish The Day” from his 2012 album Black Radio in one take, before a performance that merged that song with Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue classic “Freddie Freeloader” to honor Davis’ 100th birthday. He tearfully recounted the recording of “Jesus Children” (a remake from Stevie Wonder’s classic 1973 album Innervisions) with Hathaway on the evening of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012; Glasper had a friend whose child was one of the victims. When he couldn’t reach his originally chosen poet for the song, late actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner — who happened to be in the studio that day — offered to write a poem instead and recorded it for the song. Glasper then beautifully played the song on piano that night in Blue Note, adding recognizable notes from John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme near the end as a tribute to the jazz legend’s year-long centennial celebration.
“Joe Sample used to say, ‘time is haulin’ ass,’” Hathaway said, imitating the voice of the Jazz Crusaders cofounder. But when Glasper was about to use that to lead into a story about jazz singer Randy Crawford, the audience had had enough of his stories; he held a show by applause to determine whether he would tell that story or keep it to himself, and the audience opted for him to get back to the keys. “I got jewels for y’all niggas,” he chuckled, before moving on with the show.
Trae Jada Mitchell
Hathaway is a more than capable R&B singer – with five Grammys and various Billboard hits in the genre to her credit – but she was locked into jazz mode for this performance. In lieu of bellowing vocals, she delivered gorgeously measured harmonies with controlled lows and lush altos. She melodiously scatted in a tribute Glasper made to late jazz legend Thelonious Monk, whose birthday was the day before; one of my tablemates remarked that after Glasper introduced a song as a Miles Davis tribute, Hathaway transformed her voice into a trumpet. She also delivered the aforementioned “Jesus Children” with soberness and gravitas appropriate to Glasper’s story of grief. Hathaway and Robert Glasper may not have rehearsed ahead of time, but that never detracted from her performance; even when she was clearly figuring out his rhythm in real time, she never broke a sweat.
The show’s spontaneous, conversational nature also led to a moment of disruption. When Glasper added to his earlier praise of Hathaway by saying she and her father, Donny Hathaway, were the most talented father-child duo of vocalists, a concertgoer argued that Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole deserved their kudos, too. Blue Note is already a small, tightly packed venue perfect for intimate, close-knit performances; this heckler sat near the front, just a few feet from Glasper. The disagreement led to a contentious back-and-forth before acclaimed singer/instrumentalist Meshell Ndegeocello approached the stage to calm Glasper and offer him a drink. Glasper eventually offered the heckler a drink as a peace offering, but the impromptu music debate took up too much of the show’s 90-minute runtime.
Still, the duo’s spirit of spontaneity ultimately worked in their favor. Glasper said that same lack of rigidity has made their studio sessions so special.
“I’m very much an in-the-moment kind of cat,” he told the crowd. “Moments are things you can’t get back. Moments are the things happening in that time. You can practice and rehearse all you want and get the same thing, but those certain moments—”
“They’re magic,” Hathaway added, finishing his sentence.
