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Laufey has a characteristic silky, round old-fashioned voice that you do not hear today. She sings jazz standards and her singing speaks of benevolence, optimism and freshness.
Laufey also plays beautiful cello and guitar, and she integrates them with her singing. I have discovered her on TikTok where she overlays recordings of herself playing different instruments and singing.
In addition, she composes her own songs, which feel like jazz classics with modern elements beautifully integrated. One YouTube commenter wrote that it’s the 20’s jazz, version 2.
She also writes creative lyrics. Here’s are quotes from the lyrics of three of her songs,
Maybe one day I’ll fall in a bookstore
Into the arms of a guy
We’ll sneak into bars
And gaze at the stars
Surrounded by firefliesThis city is way too small
To give away to just one guy
Street by street, breath by breath
From the Back Bay to the sky
I’m taking back my city
I’m taking back my lifeI have never tolerated someone for so long
I’ve never laughed so much
I haven’t written a sad song
There’s no one else I’d rather fall asleep with
And dream with
You’re my best friend in the worldI was happy to learn that she has released an album and started touring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0fnqat88IQ
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That shot looks like she’s on the Astoria (or more likely Dumbo) side of the East River.
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Re: Boris Reitman’s post 102808 of 7/4/21
Laufey has a characteristic silky, round old-fashioned voice that you do not hear today. She sings jazz standards and her singing speaks of benevolence, optimism and freshness.
Her lyrics and singing are astonishingly romantic, part of a new culture that seems to be popping up like grass between segments of a sidewalk. Her future popularity may measure the future of rational culture. Some TV commercials for business seem to be influenced, if only implicitly, by The Fountainhead. And, of course, there are some, shall I say it?, new intellectuals like Steven Pinker and Matt Ridley. Even the wildly uneven, Diedre McCloskey, with a new dignity and freedom for the bourgeois.
It’s been my observation, from my music collection, that the classical jazz singers (e.g., Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn), in their singing, were more confident and full-bodied (full-throated?) than modern singers. Even the cynical Dinah Washington. One of her studio songs is so powerfully sung, perhaps influenced by rock, that gasps from the audience can be heard. Many modern jazz singers sing timidly, almost whispering. But there is lately a return to classical confidence with swing, perhaps even better than classical swing.
My source is also online, vocal jazz stations, e.g., Adore Jazz. A cable TV swing jazz channel (Ch. 547, Comcast) stresses classical jazz. And, kudos to the God of Electrons: there is much classical jazz on YouTube. You may enjoy the early Ethel Ennis and Gloria Lynne, ’50s and ’60s singers with somewhat of a Sarah Vaughn sound but “brighter.” I believe that their popularity was cut short by rock music. And, of course, “Minnie The Moocher” by Cab Calloway. Hear and see this bizarrely confident (satirical?) singing on YouTube.
Interestingly, many ’50s and ’60s rock singers had a confident, full-bodied voice. E.g., Roy Oribison, Beatles, Stones, Animals (Eric Burdon!), Yardbirds, Van Morrison, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Doors (Jim Morrison!), Crosby-Stills-Nash-and-Young, Young alone (2nd album), Linda Ronstadt (“Orion,” on one of her Stone Poneys albums, is astonishingly powerful and beautiful; some of her later albums were straight, extremely competent and confident, ’40s jazz) Lydia Pense (Cold Blood, jazzrock and jazz), Janis Joplin, Tracy Nelson, Paul Butterfield, Rod Stewart, Marianne Faithfull (Strange Weather, Broken English, but uneven over the decades; her “Penthouse Serenade is as good as [trigger warning!] that of Sarah Vaughn”); Joni Mitchell (early and Mingus), Genya Ravan (early, Goldie Zelkowitz) (Ten Wheel Drive and alone; jazzrock, rock, jazz), Bryce Portius and Chris Youlden (early Savoy Brown), Rickie Lee Jones (Pop Pop, jazz), Maggie Bell (Queen Of The Night). You may not enjoy rock, even with good singing. I heard Genya Ravan (at the Paradise, in Boston) sing rock, then, on one note, change into a perfectly done, Frank Sinatra song without a trace of rock, then, on one note, return to rock, without a trace of Frank. That’s serious singing. Many rock singers, not always successfully, did some jazz as the decades passed. And many jazz singers did some ’60s rock, including Beatles and Stones(!), in a jazz style. As the 60s ended, the confidence in rock singing ended to a significant degree.
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Re: Boris Reitman’s post 102808 of 7/4/21
When I wrote about Laufey 2 years ago, she was virtually unknown. That’s now in the past. Laufey is giving a concert at Radio City (New York).
https://www.msg.com/calendar/radio-city-music-hall-may-2024-laufey
Her second album Bewitched was GRAMMY nominated. You can find it on Spotify.
https://youtu.be/KUNcP1H7Wi4?si=8cFZSoVmTZ0TJwdz
I am glad to observe her success occur so quickly, and I am glad that good music has resonated with so many people.
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