If you know jazz, you’ll know Diane Schuur. Her signature sound is both soulful and full of toe tapping vitality—a dichotomy for which she has been rewarded and at times criticized. Hit songs like “Try a Little Tenderness” invoke the smooth sounds of her mentor, Dinah Washington. Simultaneously, her textured vocals, found in tunes like “Alright, OK, You Win,” are laden with references to familiar pop rhythms. Whatever the genre, Schuur’s impressive vocals render her inability to see (the result of a retinal birth defect) practically irrelevant.Schuur taught herself piano by ear as a child and has since played alongside the likes of Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, relying on what she calls “an amazing memory and heightened sense of hearing.” She says working with the two artists gave her the support and encouragement to believe that blind people can and do make a difference in the world through music.