Lalah Hathaway

Made In Chicago comes out on October 1, 2026, and the date was not picked at random. It would have been the 81st birthday of Donny Hathaway, her father, and the album is her ninth, named for the city where she was born. The lead single, 47th Street, has the Chicago poet J. Ivy on it. Six days later, on Wednesday, October 7, she plays the Knight Theater.

The credentials are easy to list and hard to overstate. She has five Grammys, and she shares the record with Beyoncé for most wins in Best Traditional R&B Performance. What those numbers do not explain is the thing people come for, which is a voice that can split into two notes at once, a chord trick she does live that still makes a room go quiet every time.

The Knight is the right hall for it. It sits on South Tryon at the Levine Center, next to the Mint Museum, and it holds about 1,200, so the back rows still feel close. The show is presented with The Sol Kitchen, and a 7:30 weeknight start leaves time for dinner on Tryon first. The decks around the Levine Center are the easy park.