It was a beautiful thing called THE ROTARY CONNECTION!

70's psychedelic soul/jazz fusion band The Rotary Connection

And yes they were a beautiful thing. Headed up by the amazing vocal talent of Minnie Riperton who had a five-octave range, it's hard to describe this band in words. Their story is very unique (read the Wiki here) and most of them are not around anymore, in fact Riperton and one of the other main founding members both died of cancer at a young age. Suffice it to say very simply that their music has major soul and feeling to it and they had a very interesting knack for covering tunes by other artists but rearranging them so creatively that in most cases you can hardly recognize the original. Check out for example their version of "Respect" and Jimi Hendrix's "Burning Of The Midnight Lamp, " as well as Cream's "Sunshine Of Your Love" Very trippy stuff! Their recordings are very hard to find, most of the stuff below I ripped from vinyl, here's a link to what few releases they have officially, the best of the lot probably being the import CD "Best Of Rotary Connection. 

Now this is music that is definitely very suitable for listening to on the beach!