Brotherman! - Lou Rawls Sings the Hits

Soul is a genre of popular music that blends the spiritual fervor and vocal techniques of African‑American gospel with the grooves and song forms of rhythm & blues and the harmonic palette of jazz and blues.

Soul jazz is a groove-forward branch of jazz that blends the improvisational language of hard bop with the churchy harmonies of gospel and the backbeat of rhythm & blues. It favors memorable riffs, earthy tones, and a strong, danceable pulse over dense harmonic complexity.

Jazz is an improvisation-centered music tradition that emerged from African American communities in the early 20th century. It blends blues feeling, ragtime syncopation, European harmonic practice, and brass band instrumentation into a flexible, conversational art.