Music lovers are ready to let go this Friday, March 6, 2026 evening at Rahway, NJ’s Union County Performing Arts Center at a live performance by R&B singer/songwriter Lalah Hathaway.
The “First Daughter of Soul,” Lalah Hathaway is the daughter of singer/songwriter Donny Hathaway. She rose to fame in the 1990s with her eponymous debut album, Lalah Hathaway, and enjoyed continued success with 1999’s The Song Lives On, her collaboration with jazz pianist Joe Sample.
Over the course of her career, Hathaway has been honored with 13 Grammy nominations and five wins, tying Beyoncé with a record three Grammy awards for Best Traditional R&B Performance. Her latest project is 2024’s Vantablack.
After a recording of “Black,” the mystical opening cut from Vantablack, is played, keyboardist Arreiun Tucker, guitarist Errol Cooney, drummer Varo Johnson, background vocalists Jason Morales and Dennis Clark, and bassist/musical director Eric Smith take the UCPAC stage and begin to lay down a high-energy jazz fusion groove.
The crowd cheers as Lalah Hathaway enters and asks, “Hey, are you ready?” and she and the band launch into “Let Me Love You.”
Singing, “I am going to love you like no other could,” Hathaway’s smooth contralto voice fills the UCPAC auditorium on this rhythmic R&B tune.
Segueing into “Always Love You,” Hathaway moves as she sings this R&B/soul number until a lush instrumental interlude introduces “No Lie” and Hathaway vocally improvises on this slow soul track from Vantablack.
Errol Cooney’s rhythmic guitar strumming opens “That Was Then,” where Jason Morales and Dennis Clark tunefully back up Hathaway’s lead vocal as they sing, “It was like a lifetime passed right through my fingers (Through my fingers)/So long ago, so much that I didn’t know (So much that I didn’t know),” on this R&B/soul song.
Hathaway and Co. follow up with “Breathe,” where close harmonies are deftly supported by the ensemble on this neo soul song with elicits avid cheers and applause.
“Thank you!” responds Hathaway as Arreiun Tucker’s lyrical piano intro leads into the Joe Sample/Lalah Hathaway ballad, “When Your Life Was Low.” A fan eagerly calls out, “Yeah, you better sing, girl!” as Hathaway croons with passion on the song’s “Remember, my friend/Oh-oh-oh-oh/When your life was low” coda.
The crowd hoots and hollers and Hathaway continues with a Latin-influenced Sample/Hathaway R&B tune entitled, “One Day I’ll Fly Away,” and follows up with a funky version of “Let Go.” Segueing into “Lean On Me,” Hathaway chants, “Break it down, break it down, break it down,” and Eric Smith lays down a solid bass line over which she effortlessly scat sings on this rhythmic R&B song.
Hathaway asks, “How many of you all remember me from 1990?” as she sails into “Baby Don’t Cry,” where Morales and Clark croon, “Baby, baby, don’t cry,” while Hathaway ad libs on this soulful R&B tune.
Following the disco-inspired “Love Love Love,” Hathaway inqures, “How are you all doing?” and the crowd responds in the affirmative as she shifts into a cover version of The Pointer Sisters’ dance hit, “Automatic.”
Smith is featured bending and slapping the strings of his bass on riffs from The O’Jays’ “For the Love of Money” and Ohio Players’ “Skin Tight.” Then, Lalah gets the audience echo-singing before segueing into a funky interpretation of George Gershwin’s “Summertime” where she freely ad libs around the melody.
Hathaway asks, “How many singers are there in the audience?” prior to suggesting, “Everyone is a singer — so everyone come on and sing this next one with me!” Here, she and the band perform a heavenly rendition of “Angel” where concertgoers sing along on the tune’s appealing “My angel/Oh, angel/You’re my angel” refrain of this funk ballad.
Morphing into “Caught Up in the Rapture,” concertgoers sing along with Hathaway on this Anita Baker pop hit, and join in singing, “Love has found its way in my heart tonight,” on Hathaway’s own slow and steamy R&B number, “Love’s Holiday.”
Music lovers cheer and Hathaway asks, “Did you have fun?” Then, after talking about the various zodiac signs of her bandmates, Hathaway launches into “Forever, For Always, For Love,” where audience members joyfully join her in singing this soulful Luther Vandross ballad.
As the arrangement continues, Errol Cooney impresses with a lyrical electric guitar solo which starts off softly and soulfully before continuing with a fast-picked blues improvisation and concludes with rapidly-strummed chords to enthusiastic cheers and applause.
To wrap up the number, Eric Smith renders a nimble bass solo and Lalah echo-sings with the audience prior to inspiring a standing ovation where she vocally riffs on the song’s emotional “Forever, for always, for love” refrain.
Following the soulful R&B/funk tune, “So In Love,” Hathaway and Co. conclude tonight’s show with the title track from Vantablack, where she cries, “I want it all, give it up/Want it all back/Want everything Vantablack.”
As the crowd cheers, Hathaway exclaims, “Thank you so much!” before individually thanking her bandmates, taking a bow center stage, and exiting to animated cheers and applause.
To learn more about Lalah Hathaway, please go to lalahhathaway.com. For information on upcoming performances at UCPAC — including Arrival from Sweden: The Music of ABBA on May 16 and Brian McKnight on October 17 — please click on ucpac.org.
Spotlight Central NJ entertainment news,
concert recaps, and interviews
Love Imagery Fine art stage photography
@allyouneedisloveimagery
