Grammy-winning vocalist Lalah Hathaway isn’t just a talented singer. Hathaway, who performs at the Charleston Music Hall on Oct. 2, possesses a gift that few performers have. It’s called “polyphonic singing,” or sometimes “voice splitting.”
Using precise physical manipulation of her vocal folds, Hathaway can sound like two people singing different parts simultaneously. She can hold a low note while singing in a higher harmonic tone, creating a self-harmony effect. Simply put, it’s awesome.
Over the last 40 years, Hathaway, 57, has used her voice to become one of the most adventurous performers around. She’s won five Grammy Awards in various R&B-related categories and scored hit singles like “Heaven Knows,” “Let Me Love You” and “When Your Life Was Low.”
She travels through genres effortlessly. Early in her career, Hathaway worked with bebop jazz pioneer and South Carolina native Dizzy Gillespie. She collaborated with the young jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy and soul-jazz bassist Marcus Miller, and also contributed vocals to tracks by Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar.
“Genre is like an outfit of clothes I could put on at any point,” Hathaway said this week in a Charleston City Paper interview. “Sometimes I want to wear brown with blue, you know what I mean? For me, they’re all pages in the same book, but sometimes I’d like to read this chapter or that chapter. Ultimately it’s all coming from the same source.”
Hathaway’s rare Charleston stop will feature plenty of material from Made in Chicago, her new album which comes out the day before the Music Hall show. The album, much like Hathaway herself, blends soul, R&B, blues, gospel, jazz and even spoken-word poetry.
“I wanted to write a record about my city,” said the Chicago native, “but I also wanted the record to really reflect the music that I grew up with in my city. So it’s about how that music transports me to my city, in my mind, and how all of that music that I grew up with makes me feel.”
Hathaway said she was hopeful the album will be as stirring for her audience as recording it has been for her.
“Music is meant to take you wherever you need to get to,” she said. “And you know which songs make you cry, and make you laugh, make you think of your grandma, make you remember your college dorm, remind you of your divorce, whatever it is. This music for me is just a way of transporting to that time in the early ’80s in Chicago. And for the listener, I hope it takes someone wherever they need to go. I hope people feel that.”
The Made in Chicago album, Hathaway’s 10th, comes out on Oct. 1, and that’s no random date. It’s the birthday of Hathaway’s late father, Donnie Hathaway. He released some of the most definitive soul singles of the 1970s, songs like “The Ghetto,” “This Christmas,” “Someday We’ll All Be Free” and “The Closer I Get to You,” a duet with Roberta Flack.
Donnie Hathaway died in January 1979, but he still shines as an influence on his daughter, even if it’s difficult for her to articulate.
“It is hard to put into words what his influence on me as a musician and a person has been. I think there are a lot of lessons I’ve learned,” she said.
“There are things that are in me that I can’t even explain to you that are kind of spiritual, and I don’t have language for. Hopefully, that is the reason why I make the art. Hopefully, it’s not something that has to be language, it’s something that you can feel when you listen to the music.”
As one might expect from a singer who moves between styles with ease, Hathaway’s live shows can just as easily be unpredictable.
“The audience absolutely influences the show,” she said. “The audience is the last member of the band, and that means that I’m breathing with them and looking them in the eyes. Each show is different and tailor-made to that audience. There are things that happen that are unexplainable that could only have happened in that moment with that audience.”
Hathaway mentioned that she’s especially looking forward to this show because she doesn’t get to Charleston often, and one of her most treasured musical experiences happened here.
“I really remember it so fondly because I opened for Prince in Charleston,” she said. “So I do try to visit that part of the country whenever I can. The food is great, and the people are even greater.”
IF YOU WANT TO GO: Doors open at 7 p.m. Oct. 2 Charleston Music Hall, 37 John St., Charleston. Tickets range from $67-$156; charlestonmusichall.com.
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