The Song Lives On

This 1999 collaboration between 60-year-old pianist Joe Sample and 30-year-old vocalist Lalah Hathaway didn’t just bridge the generations—it renovated the idea of classic jazz music at a time when it'd become almost totally segregated from the world of R&B. Ten of the 12 songs here are Sample originals. He'd been drawing on R&B music since the '60s, when he played in The Jazz Crusaders. In fact, “Street Life” was originally done as a funk song in 1979, sung by Randy Crawford. While Crawford was sassy and gritty, Hathaway is deliberate and nourishing. Nothing about her is rushed or trite. She's wholly authentic, and her R&B pedigree gives these gentle jazz arrangements a depth that they might not otherwise have. Put “When Your Life Was Low,” “For All We Know,” or “One Day I’ll Fly Away” next to any slow jam from the past 20 years and see which song has more feeling and atmosphere. “Fever” was more than four decades old by the time Hathaway and Sample recorded their interpretation, but it’s got more heat in it than any sexed-up song from the '90s.