HUFFINGTON
10.13.13
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MUSIC
DONNY HATHAWAY
FRANZ LISZT
MAHALIA JACKSON
Donny Hathaway leads as one of
the great soul entities of the 20th
century. Born in post-war Chicago
and raised by his gospel-singing
grandmother in St. Louis, Donny
grew up in the church choir, singing
from the age of 3, and went on to
study music at Howard University.
After college, Hathaway marked his
early professional fingerprints as a
producer, composer, arranger, and
sideman (keys). His recording career
took off in the early ’70s with “The
Ghetto, Pt. 1,” long-player Everything
Is Everything, and his classic ballad
“A Song for You.” Genre-defining
duets with Roberta Flack followed.
Hathaway took the sound of soul
to its greatest heights throughout
the decade in a swell of vinyl.
Collaborations include Stevie Wonder,
Aretha Franklin, The Staple Singers,
Quincy Jones, Arif Mardin, Norman
Lear, and Curtis Mayfield. The
magnetar’s struggle with depression
took its toll in 1979, when he dropped
15 stories to his death at New York’s
Essex House. Remember the silverthroated greatness of “Giving Up,”
from his 1971 Donny Hathaway.
Composer/conductor, master pianist,
and golden boy Franz Liszt was born in
the Austro-Hung