Unlimited Streaming
Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps
Start my trial period and start listening to this albumEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
SubscribeEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
Download not available
Ranging from inner-city soul to orchestral grandeur to a bluesy ballad to easy-listening pleasantries, Extension of a Man was Donny Hathaway's most ambitious LP, the justly titled capstone to his phenomenal career. Coming, however, from one of soul music's most widely talented figures, this wasn't exactly a surprise; both of his previous studio full-lengths, Everything Is Everything and Donny Hathaway, treated soul as merely a starting point to express his multitude of ideas concerning music and arrangement, song and performance. On Extension of a Man, the ambition began and peaked with the opener, a six-minute orchestral piece titled "I Love the Lord; He Heard My Cry, Pts. 1-2." Arranged and orchestrated for 45 musicians by Hathaway himself, it applied the buoyant optimism of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue to a religious context, and segued smoothly into the transcendent "Someday We'll All Be Free," one of Hathaway's most beloved songs. The next two pieces, "Flying Easy" and "Valdez in the Country," were also Hathaway originals, first recorded during the late '60s as part of Chess studio groups; the first is a piece of pop-soul fluff lifted up by his superb reading, the second a smooth jazz-fusion jam with Hathaway illustrating on electric piano his excellent improv capabilities. "Love, Love, Love" and "Come Little Children" were the charting singles, the former a sublime love song heavily influenced by Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. Unfortunately, these disparate pieces, brilliant as they are, don't coalesce into a single work as well as on his masterpiece Everything Is Everything, but Hathaway never stops impressing with his conceptions of arrangement and performance. Crippled by depression, he would never release another solo album during the last five years of his life, though among the projects he'd hoped to record was the four-part concerto Life, to be performed by the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra with him in the conductor's chair, and the score of an epic biblical film.
© John Bush /TiVo
You are currently listening to samples.
Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.
Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.
From $10.83/month
Phil Ramone, RecordingEngineer - Hubert Laws, Flute - George Ricci, Cello - Gloria Agostini, Harp - Wayne Andre, Trombone - Garnett Brown, Trombone - Arif Mardin, Producer - Marvin Stamm, Solo Trumpet - Donny Hathaway, Arranger, Electric Piano, Writer, MainArtist - Joe Newman, Trumpet - Grady Tate, Drums - Kermit Moore, Cello - Ernie Royal, Trumpet - Harry Lookofsky, Violin - Theodore Israel, Violin - Myrna Summers & The Interdenominational Singers, Choir - STANLEY CLARKE, Bass Guitar - Julien Barber, Violin - Henry Schuman, Oboe - Sanford Allen, Violin - Don Butterfield, Tuba - Paul Faulise, Trombone - Noel DaCosta, Violin - Russ Savakus, Bass Guitar - Julius Watkins, French Horn - Charlie McCracken, Cello - Dominick Gravine, Trombone - Emanuel Greene, Violin - Jim Buffington, French Horn - Tony Miranda, French Horn - Vincent Abato, Solo Clarinet
© 1973 Atlantic Records ℗ 1973 Atlantic Recording Corporation produced under license Atlantic Recording Corporation manufactured and distributed by Rhino Records Inc.
Edward Howard, Writer - Arif Mardin, Producer - Cornell Dupree, Guitar - Willie Weeks, Bass - Marvin Stamm, Trumpet - Donny Hathaway, Arranger, Electric Piano, Lead Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Ray Lucas, Drums - David Spinoza, Guitar
© 1973 Atlantic Records ℗ 1990 Atlantic Recording Corporation
Ralph MacDonald, Percussion - Arif Mardin, Producer - Cornell Dupree, Guitar - Willie Weeks, Bass Guitar - GENE PAUL, RecordingEngineer - Donny Hathaway, Electric Piano, Lead Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Ray Lucas, Drums - Keith Loving, Guitar - David Spinoza, Guitar - Franklin Moss Jr., Writer - Walter Lowe, Writer
© 1973 Atlantic Records ℗ 1973 Atlantic Recording Corporation produced under license Atlantic Recording Corporation manufactured and distributed by Rhino Records Inc.
Ralph MacDonald, Percussion - Arif Mardin, Producer - Cornell Dupree, Guitar - Willie Weeks, Bass Guitar - GENE PAUL, RecordingEngineer - Donny Hathaway, Electric Piano, Lead Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Ray Lucas, Drums - Keith Loving, Guitar
© 1973 Atlantic Records ℗ 1973 Atlantic Recording Corporation produced under license Atlantic Recording Corporation manufactured and distributed by Rhino Records Inc.
Fred White, Drums - Arif Mardin, Producer - Cornell Dupree, Guitar - Willie Weeks, Bass Guitar - GENE PAUL, RecordingEngineer - Hugh McCracken, Guitar - Donny Hathaway, Organ, Electric Piano, Lead Vocals, MainArtist - David Newman, Tenor Saxophone - Al Kooper, Writer - Al Koopr, Writer
© 1973 Atlantic Records ℗ 1973 Atlantic Recording Corporation produced under license Atlantic Recording Corporation manufactured and distributed by Rhino Records Inc.
Fred White, Drums - Garnett Brown, Trombone - Arif Mardin, Producer - Cornell Dupree, Guitar - Donny Hathaway, Bass Guitar, Electric Piano, Lead Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Joe Newman, Trumpet - Seldon Powell, Clarinet - Phil Upchurch, Solo Guitar - Murray Allen, RecordingEngineer - Myrna Summers, Tambourine - Joseph Bishop, Guitar
© 1973 Atlantic Records ℗ 1973 Atlantic Recording Corporation produced under license Atlantic Recording Corporation manufactured and distributed by Rhino Records Inc.
Ralph MacDonald, Percussion - Ken Williams, Writer - Arif Mardin, Producer - Cornell Dupree, Guitar - Willie Weeks, Bass Guitar - GENE PAUL, RecordingEngineer - Donny Hathaway, Electric Piano, Lead Vocals, MainArtist - Ray Lucas, Drums - Keith Loving, Guitar - J.R.Bailey, Writer - Myrna Summers & The Interdenominational Singers, Backing Vocals
© 1973 Atlantic Records ℗ 1973 Atlantic Recording Corporation produced under license Atlantic Recording Corporation manufactured and distributed by Rhino Records Inc.
Jimmy Douglass, Backing Vocals - Phil Bodner, Alto Saxophone - Arif Mardin, Producer - Cornell Dupree, Solo Guitar - Willie Weeks, Bass Guitar - GENE PAUL, RecordingEngineer - Marvin Stamm, Trumpet - Donny Hathaway, Electric Piano, Lead Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Seldon Powell, Tenor Saxophone - Tony Studd, Trombone - Ray Lucas, Drums - Keith Loving, Acoustic Guitar - Don Butterfield, Tuba - Richard Wells, Backing Vocals - Mario Medious, Backing Vocals - William McCullum, Backing Vocals
© 1973 Atlantic Records ℗ 1973 Atlantic Recording Corporation produced under license Atlantic Recording Corporation manufactured and distributed by Rhino Records Inc.
Ralph MacDonald, Percussion - Danny O'Keefe, Writer - Phil Bodner, Clarinet - Arif Mardin, Producer - GENE PAUL, RecordingEngineer - Hugh McCracken, Banjo, Guitar - Marvin Stamm, Trumpet - Donny Hathaway, Electric Piano, Lead Vocals, MainArtist - Seldon Powell, Clarinet - Tony Studd, Trombone - Grady Tate, Drums - Don Butterfield, Tuba - Gordan Edwards, Bass Guitar
© 1973 Atlantic Records ℗ 1973 Atlantic Recording Corporation produced under license Atlantic Recording Corporation manufactured and distributed by Rhino Records Inc.
Phil Ramone, RecordingEngineer - Arif Mardin, Producer - Donny Hathaway, Piano, Lead Vocals, MainArtist - Cissy Houston, Backing Vocals - Myrna Smith, Backing Vocals - Sylvia Shemwell, Backing Vocals - Leon Ware, Writer - STANLEY CLARKE, Bass Guitar - Rick Morotta, Drums - David Spinoza, Guitar
© 1973 Atlantic Records ℗ 1973 Atlantic Recording Corporation produced under license Atlantic Recording Corporation manufactured and distributed by Rhino Records Inc.
Joe Greene, Writer - Arif Mardin, Producer - Donny Hathaway, Keyboards, Lead Vocals, MainArtist - Billy Preston, Writer
© 1973 Atlantic Records ℗ 1973 Atlantic Recording Corporation produced under license Atlantic Recording Corporation manufactured and distributed by Rhino Records Inc.
Album review
Ranging from inner-city soul to orchestral grandeur to a bluesy ballad to easy-listening pleasantries, Extension of a Man was Donny Hathaway's most ambitious LP, the justly titled capstone to his phenomenal career. Coming, however, from one of soul music's most widely talented figures, this wasn't exactly a surprise; both of his previous studio full-lengths, Everything Is Everything and Donny Hathaway, treated soul as merely a starting point to express his multitude of ideas concerning music and arrangement, song and performance. On Extension of a Man, the ambition began and peaked with the opener, a six-minute orchestral piece titled "I Love the Lord; He Heard My Cry, Pts. 1-2." Arranged and orchestrated for 45 musicians by Hathaway himself, it applied the buoyant optimism of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue to a religious context, and segued smoothly into the transcendent "Someday We'll All Be Free," one of Hathaway's most beloved songs. The next two pieces, "Flying Easy" and "Valdez in the Country," were also Hathaway originals, first recorded during the late '60s as part of Chess studio groups; the first is a piece of pop-soul fluff lifted up by his superb reading, the second a smooth jazz-fusion jam with Hathaway illustrating on electric piano his excellent improv capabilities. "Love, Love, Love" and "Come Little Children" were the charting singles, the former a sublime love song heavily influenced by Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. Unfortunately, these disparate pieces, brilliant as they are, don't coalesce into a single work as well as on his masterpiece Everything Is Everything, but Hathaway never stops impressing with his conceptions of arrangement and performance. Crippled by depression, he would never release another solo album during the last five years of his life, though among the projects he'd hoped to record was the four-part concerto Life, to be performed by the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra with him in the conductor's chair, and the score of an epic biblical film.
© John Bush /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 11 track(s)
- Total length: 00:47:05
- Main artists: Donny Hathaway
- Label: Rhino Atlantic
- Genre: Soul/Funk/R&B Soul
© 1973 Atlantic Records ℗ 1973 Atlantic Records. Marketed by Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Group Company.
Improve album information
Why buy on Qobuz?
-
Stream or download your music
Buy an album or an individual track. Or listen to our entire catalog with our high-quality unlimited streaming subscriptions.
-
Zero DRM
The downloaded files belong to you, without any usage limit. You can download them as many times as you like.
-
Choose the format best suited for you
Download your purchases in a wide variety of formats (FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF...) depending on your needs.
-
Listen to your purchases on our apps
Download the Qobuz apps for smartphones, tablets, and computers, and listen to your purchases wherever you go.