The last time we saw the MSO in action, they were helping Paul Grabowsky and Lisa Gerrard realise their dreamily abstract work, Immortal Diamond. Demonstrating their versatility, the MSO get properly funky on Donny Hathaway’s deep soul jazz tunes tonight. A tribute concert of sorts, tonight’s show is more of a celebration of Donny’s work by his daughter Lalah Hathaway. The sweet cruisy vibes of Flying Easy illustrates the genius of Donny Hathaway’s compositions with samba rhythms set to shifting time signatures and unusual chord progressions all smoothed out with lush strings that have a kind of groovy 60s Bacharach vibe. It's not long before Lalah Hathaway is dealing an electrifying extended version of I Believe To My Soul. It's an old Ray Charles tune but with the added texture of righteously funky brass arrangements. Hathaway uses the opportunity to showcase the power of her voice, which smoothly finds its way across octaves. It's not hard to see why she has worked with the likes of Miles Davis and Esperanza Spalding, winning five Grammys along the way. Resplendent in a glittering green and gold evening gown, created by local First Nations designer Paul McCann, she cuts a cool and dignified figure as she introduces Where Is The Love and The Closer I Get To You. It’s so wild that Hathaway sings both parts of these wistful duets, originally recorded with Roberta Flack. Her voice moves up from thick and deep honeyed tones to lighter, more silken sounds to astonishing effect. Hathaway reflected with a certain sadness that everyone requests Roberta Flack songs, but she prefers to play her father's songs. Surprisingly, Hathaway admits that she didn’t know that Jealous Guy from the Live album was a John Lennon cover till she was well into her twenties! It's even more surprising that the MSO play an arrangement that sounds so much like the one that featured on the Live album. This Christmas brought down the end of the first part of the set with news that Hathaway has recorded her first duet with Donny on an alternative mix of this tune recently unearthed by his label.

After the interval, Hathaway and the MSO sunk deep into the luscious R&B love songs for which she is known. Moving from the joyous Love, Love, Love to the more heartbroken For All We Know, these tunes bristle with emotion and feelings that have touched listeners around the world. Tunes like Someday We’ll All Be Free are dreamy heartfelt songs that allow the MSO strings to sweep us away in this soul-searching music while some amazing brass solos give the horn section to chance to really shine. The cool tickle of piano notes gets a collective gasp of appreciation from the audience. ‘That your song?’ says Hathaway to the sound of applause before she deals the audience’s sentimental favourite, A Song For You. Things get a touch of blaxploitation with a fine version of Little Ghetto Boy that adds a little grit to the proceedings. A cover of The Ghetto would have gone down a treat right now, but while there is so much from Hathaway’s catalogue we would love to hear, she concludes the second part of the evening after about 40 minutes with Donny Hathaway's other Christmas song Be There. Apparently, it is her favourite song from her father’s catalogue. Although there is a bit of saccharine Christmas cheer in the arrangement, the song itself is a plea to be emotionally honest and present with the people you love more than anything else. A long time ago, the world lost Donny Hathaway’s prodigious musical talent at a very young age. He left behind a cache of now classic R&B-infused soul-jazz tunes that are very much alive in the hands of his daughter.