Boz Scaggs

Just about every aging rocker seems to turn to standards at one point or another, but Boz Scaggs is one of the few who handles them with care. In 2003, Boz's But Beautiful went No. 1 on the jazz charts and also earned the rock crooner considerable praise from jazz critics and musicians. With the help of Gil Goldstein's cool atmospheric jazz, Boz pays attention to the lyrics, thinking like a laidback jazz singer without trying to sound like one. Here, he takes classics like the Kurt Weill title track and the beatnik tune "Ballad of the Sad Young Men" and makes them about the here and now.