This odd coupling invites two icons to break character. Nelson revisits American classics with serious jazzmen; check his beat-tugging guitar on "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It." And Marsalis, not the mellowest genius, chills out, adding a one-note trumpet solo on "That's All" that's funny and awesome. Even when things don't click, the improvisatory spirit shines.

“Too Close”

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'"