There are two notable solos on the album, one on the track "The Ghetto" by Hathaway on electric piano and another by Willie Weeks on bass on "Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything)", taken from the performances recorded at The Troubadour and at The Bitter End accordingly.
Hathaway's daughter Lalah would record her own live album in 2015 in which she also did "Little Ghetto Boy".
The album received generally positive reviews from music critics. Rolling Stone's Mosi Reeves stated "Donny Hathaway swings with vividness on this brilliant live set and the audience responds ecstatically."[4] AllMusic rated the album score of 4.5 out of 5, with John Bush stating the album is "one of the most glorious of his career, an uncomplicated, energetic set with a heavy focus on audience response as well as the potent jazz chops of his group", and that it "solidified Hathaway's importance at the forefront of soul music".[5] In 2015, Live was ranked number 48 on Rolling Stone's list of 50 Greatest Live Albums of All Time.[4] In 2005, Victor Wooten included it in his list of the 10 essential bass albums.[6]
^"Everything Is Everything". wax-poetics. Retrieved 2022-10-04. Jerry Wexler proposed that Hathaway do a live recording for his third Atlantic release. Two clubs, the Troubadour in Hollywood, California, and the Bitter End in New York City, were chosen as the recording venues.
