Al Jarreau

The genius of Al Jarreau is his ability to hop back-and-forth at will across the borders of jazz and pop and R&B, somehow managing to embody the spirit of all three. If he didn't make it sound so deceptively easy, it would be tough to believe that one man, however gifted, could deliver the sleek, silk-sheets-and-candlelight R&B of "We're In This Love Together," the pre-Bobby McFerrin scatting acrobatics of Jarreau's take on the Dave Brubeck classic "Take Five," and the romantic, croontastic pop balladry of "After All." The crazy thing is, that's just the tip of the iceberg for this cool customer's kaleidoscopic combination of vocal gifts.

Experience the power that lives in those legendary lungs, in Next Steps.

The elastic voice of Al Jarreau made him the Mr. Fantastic of singers, able to stretch wire-thin without snapping, squeeze through the tiniest pinhole or fill up the widest expanse, and twist into every imaginable shape, all with the flexibility of an Olympic gymnast. In the hands of Jarreau and his guitar-god buddy George Benson, Seals & Crofts' sunny soft-pop hit "Summer Breeze" is reshaped into a sparkling snifter of smooth, tasty jazz. Al's syncopated scat shuffle on Dizzy Gillespie's "Groovin' High" moves like a basketball bounding around the court on its way to a sweet slam-dunk. And when Jarreau launches into full flight on "Letter Perfect," his voice takes the fleeting forms of everything from a didgeridoo to a fire alarm before touching down for a graceful landing.

Discover a Jarreau you might not know, in Deep Cuts.

Think you know your Al Jarreau? The only singer ever to win GRAMMY® Awards for pop, jazz, and R&B has even more strings to his bow than you might've guessed. Bossa nova king Antonio Carlos Jobim himself would have blushed at the sensual intensity Al brings to the Brazilian boss' "Agua de Beber." He dives into the Great American Songbook and surfaces with "God Bless the Child," decked out in a bluesy strut and flanked by Jill Scott and George Benson. And the style Jarreau whips up on "Scootcha-Booty's" spinning cocktail of jazz, funk, soul, pop and Ingredient X hasn't quite been pinned down yet, so you can just call it "Al."

If a musician can be measured by the size of his artistic footprint, then Al Jarreau's likely to leave subsequent generations some huge shoes to fill. Not only has he put albums on the charts in four different decades and scored hits in the realms of pop, jazz, and R&B, but he's also blurred the lines between the many modes he's mastered. Along the way he's created a far-reaching legacy — everyone from hip-hop beatboxers to swinging scat singers and sexy R&B crooners owes a little something to Jarreau. And from the smooth-jazz sway of "Breezin'" to the old-school R&B torch song "Since I Fell For You," this is where you'll discover every side of his constantly shifting musical personality, as he finds his own "Way to Your Heart."