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At the 47th annual Grammy Awards, Ray Charles' final album, Genius Loves Company, earns eight Grammys, including album of the year and record of the year, for his duet with Norah Jones. Singer Alicia Keys came away with four Grammys and R&B artist Usher won three.

The first person to record a solo on the vibraphone, Lionel Hampton was a master balladeer. Among its many gems, Essential Masters of Jazz has Hampton's classic "Midnight Sun," which Hampton described as capturing a "love feeling."

George Shearing is perhaps best known as the inventor of a unique quintet sound that combined piano, vibraphone, electric guitar, bass, and drums. He also influenced the development of small-combo Afro-Cuban jazz. This album focuses on Shearing's MGM period, when he was at the height of his popularity.

Legendary clarinetist Benny Goodman has more than eighty albums to his name. Unlike many Goodman records, Ken Burns' JAZZ Series: Benny Goodman contains samples of work from his earlier and later years. The album also has most of Goodman's big band hits, including "Sing, Sing, Sing."

Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is frequently cited as being the best-selling jazz album in history. Released in 1959, this classic from the master trumpeter has sold more than five million copies and is still going.

Celebrate the New Year from Blue Note venues around the world. The lineup includes The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Joshua Redman and Brad Meldau, Fred Hersch, Ron Carter, Buika and Dee Dee Bridgewater.

The LA-based trio makes an intricate blend of jazz, R&B and hip-hop. For their Tiny Desk set, they pulled out all the stops: flutes, flugelhorns, saxophones, keyboards, ukuleles and more.

For many of his fans, Bob James is to jazz what James Brown is to R&B — the music and the musician go hand in hand. Now, with literally dozens of jazz albums under his belt, James is back with a classic piano-bass-drums trio. Hear full-length cuts from his latest CD, plus an extended version of his conversation with NPR's Tavis Smiley.

Soul singer King Floyd died on March 6 at the age of 61, but his passing barely merited mention in the media — an oversight that seems at odds with his brash style. What most know about Floyd begins and ends with his massive and enduring 1971 R&B hit "Groove Me."

Most retrospectives of 1967's "Summer of Love" skimmed over the emergence of soul and R&B music. Pop culture expert Mark Anthony Neal talks about the political and social significance of the music.