■ 27 January 2012 | 4:24 PM
CRATE-DIG DUSTY: "Everything Is Everything," Donny Hathaway
Donny Hathaway was 24 when in the fall of 1969 he started recording his debut, Everything Is Everything. The depth of his talent, particularly on the microphone, belied his age. His youth also brought vibrancy to the traditional soul route he followed. Unbridled joy warmed the record. Tragically, Donny never recaptured that feeling in the studio again.
The Chicago artist was long established in the business before he inked a deal with Atco, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. Folks in the know had been buzzing about Donny since the mid ‘60s. As an arranger and pianist, he’d appeared on numerous sessions for Carla Thomas, the Impressions, Aretha and others. He’d also done lucrative jingle work.
Donny and his homeboy, drummer-producer Ric Powell, helm the sessions for Everything Is Everything. Top-shelf musicians, most close friends of the young star, flesh out Donny’s arrangements. They include sax legend King Curtis and guitar great Phil Upchurch. The songs are smartly structured, free-flowing and funkier than a pot of old chitlins.
The anchor is Donny’s voice, the aural equivalent of loam – fertile and rich with the blues and gospel of his childhood. That sound and feeling travel the lengths of his arms, shoot through his fingers and make the piano moan. Everything Is Everything introduces a confident artist wide open to new challenges. Donny is respectful of the past as he pushes his music forward.
The album opens with “Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything),” a sonic trip down the back alleys and along the busy boulevards of Soulville, USA. Southern funk filters through urban attitude. Donny sweetens proceedings with “Je Vous Aime (I Love You),” a charming ode to his wife. The gospel-steeped background vocals rival those by the Sweet Inspirations on the records Aretha was cutting over at Atlantic Studios.
Donny’s rendition of Brother Ray’s “I Believe to My Soul” bests the original, with dazzling, strutting horns and greasy Wurlitzer keyboard lines. He takes “Misty,” the jazz standard, to church and the jukejoint. Donny wasn’t a jazz singer and didn’t ascribe to be. He could take any song, imbue it with holy fire and retain the lyrical integrity.
The album takes a stark turn with “Thank You Master (For My Soul),” a straight-up gospel number with horns. Donny would explore a more stripped-down approach to secularized gospel on his next album, a dark self-titled effort released months after Everything Is Everything.
The set includes “The Ghetto,” the lone hit off the album. Co-written by Leroy Hutson, Donny’s roommate at Howard University, the classic is a mostly instrumental number that evokes blighted corners of urban America – cracked concrete and boarded-up buildings. But beyond that, a sense of love and hope radiates. The layered percussion (that conga break is lovely) and atmospheric voices (including cries from Donny’s infant daughter, singer Lalah Hathaway) underscore the fervency permeating the album.
Everything Is Everything was a moderate success, peaking at No. 33 on the R&B charts and No. 73 on the pop side. Songs from the album, particularly “The Ghetto” and “Voices Inside,” crackled with life on 1972’s Donny Hathaway Live, the singer’s only gold seller as a solo artist.
He achieved big pop success as a duet partner with his Howard buddy, Roberta Flack. But by the end of the decade, Donny was overwhelmed by his mental issues. Poor guy. He leapt from a window of the Essex House Hotel in Manhattan on January 13, 1979. He was 33.
Nearly a decade before that tragic night, Donny blossomed on Everything Is Everything. The cover features him on a corner strewn with litter, playing Ring-a-Round a Rosie with street kids. The image suggests the innocence of the music inside. It also hints at the joy.
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What a voice!
Donny had the most amazing voice! His duets with Roberta Flack were so beautiful. My favorite Christmas song is still "This Christmas". It moves me every time I hear it.