Jazz singer Laufey reimagines Miles Davis classic 'Blue in Green' for a new generation

Icelandic-Chinese jazz singer-songwriter Laufey says her mission is simple: get young people ​to fall in love ​with jazz.
'It's literally all I care about as an artist — having people my age or even younger care about jazz music and classical music', the 25-year-old said.
That passion led Laufey to reimagine 'Blue in Green', the iconic composition by jazz legend Miles Davis, as part of celebrations ⁠marking the centennial of the trumpeter and composer, who was born in ⁠May 1926 and died in 1991. Laufey debuted her version live during a Twitch stream event in Manhattan Beach, California, last week.
Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures ‌in jazz history, Black American musician Miles ​Davis spent nearly five decades ⁠at the forefront of the genre's major stylistic transformations.
Debuting on ​Miles Davis' 1959 album 'Kind of ‌Blue', 'Blue in Green' endures as a jazz staple.
'When I was a kid, I would listen to Miles Davis and ​felt like no one around me understood it or cared', Laufey said ahead of the performance. 'Then I realised they just hadn't been exposed to it — or exposed to it in a way that felt like it was theirs'.
For Laufey, reworking 'Blue in Green' became ‌a way to bridge that gap. She added lyrics to the instrumental ​track, a process she compared to solving a puzzle.
After wrestling with the idea ​for ‌some ⁠time, inspiration struck quickly. 'When it all clicked, it felt like the clouds clearing and the sun coming out', she said, adding that the lyrics came together in ​about 20 minutes.
Already a classically trained cellist, Laufey — whose ⁠full name is Laufey ​Lín Bing Jónsdóttir — began building an audience during the Covid-19 lockdown by posting TikTok videos that introduced jazz music to younger listeners. The approach helped propel her career beyond social media.
Since then, she has released three albums and ​won two Grammy Awards for best traditional pop vocal album, in ​2024 and 2026. In 2025, she brought jazz to the Coachella stage, performing alongside the Los Angeles Philharmonic. — Reuters