Autumn

London singer <b>Nao</b> made her name as a prophet of high-gloss R&B, weaving together strands of deep house, neo-soul and liquid funk, and singing in an arresting, muscular falsetto. But before all that, she spent four years studying vocal jazz at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, immersing herself in the music of Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane and Sarah Vaughan. The 38-year-old musician returns to these roots on <i>Autumn</i>, her fifth album and the first of a season-themed four-album suite. Created alongside producer Dave Okumu (lead singer of The Invisible), <i>Autumn</i> takes its cues from jazz’s looseness, drawing parallels between its sense of release and that of autumn itself: “Fall sheds, winter sleeps and summer’s real,” she sings on <b>“Burst”</b>. Along the way, she folds in a few timeless inspirations—<b>“Eugene”</b> is a warm, groovy homage to D’Angelo’s <i>Voodoo</i>, detouring for tributes to Marvin, Curtis, Stevie and Sly.