Lucky Daye

The New Orleans-born, L.A.-based singer Lucky Daye nearly gave up; dejected and out of resources, he told Rolling Stone that he was convinced he was going to be forced to return home. Before he left California, though, he decided to create a final project, the one he’d planned had he been able to sign a record deal. That music (now being released by Keep Cool, the label that finally picked him up) became the bedrock of his first album, which he is rolling out in bite-size EPs: “I,” from November, and “II,” from last month. His buttery voice flutters over funky jazz and blissful pop productions for an R. & B. hybrid that is as traditional as it is uniquely his own.