Raphael Saadiq and Take 6 performed with New Orleanians on their new albums. Here’s a take on the tracks they perform on.

Former Tony! Toni! Tone! member Raphael Saadiq has immersed himself in different phases of his soul history in recent years, fitting himself in those moments and subtly pulling those moments into today. Ray Ray presented Saadiq as a blaxploitation hero, and The Way I See It presents him as a Motown front man. On “The Big Easy,” he collaborates with the Rebirth Brass Band, though they could be any horn section until a short breakdown during the outro, when it’s at least clear that a New Orleans band is playing. The song itself is a spot-on pastiche of a lost-love Motown song, but it gains drama in the context of the title. Saadiq is all alone as he sings, “Where is my baby?” Normally, that sounds like the self-conscious melodrama of the lost-love conceit—my baby’s gone and I’m all alone. Think of the song as a vignette in post-Katrina story and it makes literal sense. Like so much of the album, it’s an easy pleasure and slyly very smart.

The a cappella group Take 6 covers the standards as the title implies, often with special guests. It backs Aaron Neville on “Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans,” and it’s hard to get around the odd, free-floating-through-time nature of Take 6’s arrangement. There’s no denying the dexterity or airy precision of the harmonies, but they also recall early bachelor pad albums more than any doo wop street corner. In that context, Neville puts the song’s feet on the ground, though the skippy swing threatens to sweep them along.