Released in 1975 and featuring string and horn arrangements by Dave Grusin, Al Jarreau's critically acclaimed and entirely self-penned debut album for Warner Bros, We Got By, still sounds fresh 40 years on, from the funky vamp of album opener ‘Spirit’ to the heart-melting ballad ‘Susan's Song’. Jarreau's follow-up album, Glow, runs the gamut from soul-filled covers of pop standards (‘Fire and Rain’) to hugely inventive originals including the multilayered brilliance of the a cappella ‘Hold On Me’. Documenting Jarreau's first European tour, the breakthrough 1977 live double album Look To The Rainbow garnered him his first Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album. From the gospel intensity of ‘Could You Believe’ and the fluid scat singing on ‘Burst In With The Dawn’ to the gloriously freewheeling ‘Better Than Anything’ and the numinous, self-communing stylings of the title track (taken from the musical Finian's Rainbow), it's an exceptional album with Jarreau at his most joyously direct, backed by playing of super-fine precision.