Raphael Saadiq's music is thick with the echoes of his soulful forebears. When he emerged in the ‘80s, the synth-funk of Sheila E. and Club Nouveau informed the new jack swing he created with Tony! Toni! Toné! His subsequent modern soul can groove as deeply as Sly & The Family Stone's psychedelia, blow smoke rings like the Stylistics' dreamy reveries and brood like Howlin' Wolf's gut-bucket blues.