If you listen to Donny Hathaway, he had a lot of jazz elements in the way he sang, ... For me, the two styles borrow from each other so much that sometimes it's hard for me to make a distinction. When you hear Lalah sing the combination, that's when she really shines -- when she's allowed to dip into her jazz when she wants to and then get soulful and do the R&B thing.

Marcus Miller