In her years with Elektra, Ms. Rushen seemed to be modeling an archetype that never ended up fully taking hold: a musician with an untroubled command of the jazz tradition, and a devotion to sharing that skill set with a popular audience without softening it up. Vested with a major label’s resources and an arms-length relationship to its executives, she made carefully produced, protean pop records that set dance floors aflame. Then she toured the material with a smallish band, relying on the talents of her ace jazz musicians to create something fresh on the road.

In 1982, with “Forget Me Nots” climbing the Billboard charts, Ms. Rushen appeared on the TV show “Soul Train.” After singing her hit to a flock of dancers in the show’s flashy studio, she stood for a short interview with a moonstruck Don Cornelius. He noted that her latest album, “Straight From the Heart,” seemed to come from just as genuine and nuanced a place as her early jazz records. Her eyes brightened at the thought.

“It more or less illustrates the change that I think black music is going through,” she told Mr. Cornelius. “We’re getting back to the groove again, and to the way things really feel — kind of blending the complexities with the simplicity, and putting it together for another thing. It’s very exciting.”

Born in Los Angeles in 1954, Ms. Rushen started playing piano at age 3, and she was giving classical recitals by 6. She attended Locke High School, which had a prestigious music program, where instruction often extended beyond the classroom. Reggie Andrews, a young instructor, invited figures like Herbie Hancock and members of Earth, Wind & Fire to speak at the school, or to rehearse there. He took his students to studios, to watch producers score movies and TV shows. So Ms. Rushen never felt like she had to choose between jazz or pop or writing for film: It could all be part of the same life.