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Dream Battle: Lalah Hathaway vs Randy Crawford

Roughly sixteen Lalah to fourteen Randy across thirty tracks. Two singers, a generation apart, both defined by restraint — and one hell of a close fight.

The tale of the tape

Randy Crawford is from Macon, Georgia, and made her name as the uncredited voice on The Crusaders' "Street Life" in 1979 — a record that became a standard and did not carry her name on the label. She built an enormous career in Europe, particularly Britain and Germany, while remaining oddly under-celebrated in America. Her long partnership with Crusaders pianist Joe Sample produced some of the finest jazz-soul vocal records of the last fifty years.

Lalah Hathaway is the daughter of Donny Hathaway, which is both an inheritance and a burden. She is a technician of a kind that appears once a generation — capable, audibly, of singing multiple notes simultaneously by manipulating her vocal harmonics, a feat that stops other singers dead. She has five Grammys and a catalogue that runs from straight R&B to serious jazz.

The two are connected directly: Lalah also recorded with Joe Sample, and both women have sung "Street Life" and "One Day I'll Fly Away." The playlist makes the comparison unavoidable.

Round by round

Randy leads on repertoire. "Street Life" is the monument. "One Day I'll Fly Away" is the other — later used in Moulin Rouge, and hers remains definitive. "Rainy Night in Georgia" takes on Brook Benton, "Wild Is the Wind" takes on Nina Simone, and "Captain of Her Heart" and "Wishing on a Star" are the European hits. "Cigarette in the Rain" is the one her admirers name first.

Lalah answers on pure instrument. "Angel (Live)" and "Mirror (Live)" are where the technique is fully exposed — if you have never heard the chord thing, the live recordings are where it happens. "Jesus Children" with Robert Glasper and Malcolm-Jamal Warner won a Grammy and reworks Stevie Wonder. "y o y," "storm" and "i can't wait" come from her own recent albums.

The Joe Sample duets are the fulcrum. Randy's "When I Need You" and "Angel" against Lalah's "One Day I'll Fly Away," "For All We Know" and "When Your Life Was Low" — the same pianist, two generations, and the clearest possible comparison.

The verdict, and where to go next

Randy wins on songs and on sheer emotional directness. Lalah wins on musicianship — nobody alive does what she does. Call it a draw and enjoy the argument.

Albums: Randy Crawford and Joe Sample's Feeling Good (2006), and Lalah Hathaway's Lalah Hathaway Live (2015), which is the one to hear.

And then Donny Hathaway Live, because everything in this conversation eventually comes back to it.

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