The late, great Donny Hathaway's 1970 Christmas song, "This Christmas," became an instant classic among black families.

The late, great Donny Hathaway’s 1970 Christmas song, “This Christmas,” became an instant classic among black families.

Bilal joined conductor/violinist/producer Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and his ensemble at a July 23rd performance in Los Angeles where the highly underrated singer tackled Donny Hathaway’s classic song “Someday We’ll All Be Free.”

With the increasing number of films aimed towards black audiences in the early 1970s, filmmakers realized that they couldn’t turn to Henry Mancini to provide the musical backdrops for these movies.