“The Ghetto,” characteristic of his passionate, hard‐driving blues style, was his first hit single. Franklin, who arranged for a contract with Atlantic Records in 1971. He enrolled at Howard, where, during the 60's, he was a contemporary of Miss Flack, and stayed around the Washington area playing with the Rick Powell group for several years before King Curtis, the late saxophonist, introduced him to Mr. He first performed in the gOspel churches of St. Redding, had deep connections with black gospel music. Hathaway, whose style was sometimes comparable to Otis Redding, the blues singer, like Mr.

Also a singer, the two met when they were students at Howard University where he was a straight‐A student although he never graduated. Yesterday she said, “He was troubled.” She said his trouble was his quick rise to success and the anxiety it had produced. He hadn't been drinking heavily or taking drugs of any sort.”Īccording to his estranged wife, Eulalah, he was briefly hospitalized for emotional problems on two occasions in 1972. We had just left her Central Park West apartment and were back in our rooms for the evening. “He was in good spirits, having just written new music and having performed with Roberta, all day. Hathaway and other prominent black entertainers, disagreed: Franklin & Associates, an Atlanta‐based concern managing Mr. Hathaway's room was bolted shut and no visitors were present, he added. “We suspect suicide,” a police spokesman said. The singer had recently returned from dinner with Roberta Flack, the singer, with whom he had spent the day recording, according to Edward Howard, a business associate. Donny Hathaway, a 33-year-old Grammy‐award winning singer and composer of pop tunes with blues and gospel undertones, died Saturday after he plunged from the 15th floor of his Essex House room at 160 Central Park South, the police said.

Roberta flack donny hathaway 1972 rar