LIVE: Lalah Hathaway Live in New York City

Lalah Hathaway's touche ddown in NYC recently at the Highline Ballroom. As far as singers are concerned its hard not to consider her one of the best working today; she effortlessly dances from soul to jazz to gospel and has the kind of voice that sounds three dimensional even when its coming at you even when you're streaming her songs (get your bitrate up in 2018 y'all).

In a live setting she is also most importantly effortlessly cool. Highline was packed to the gills but her stage banter and ease on stage was made it felt like a house party. She cracking jokes, restarted a song three times while she waited for someone to finish taking their perfect cellphone picture so she can continue the show uninterrupted.

What makes Hathaway a joy is because she tackles music as a fan first, musician second. Early on in her set she threw in covers of Earth Wind and Fire along with Anita Baker, leading the crowd along to sing alongs (while giving the New York City crowd respect for their pitch perfect renditions). Between the air tight backing band, her gracious hosting it was of the rare shows where it not only felt like you were watching a fantastic show, you were a part of it.