As a college student in the early 2000s, Kelela Mizanekristos used to rent a car and make the four-hour drive from D.C. to see Amel Larrieux sing at the Blue Note Jazz Club in NYC’s West Village. She’d tape the set on her recorder, then study it on the drive home. Two decades later, in May 2024, she told the story from the iconic venue’s stage, where she and her band performed unplugged selections from her catalogue. Since her debut mixtape, 2013’s Cut 4 Me, Kelela has stood at the vanguard of the intersection between R&B and forward-thinking electronic music. But on In the Blue Light, captured during her Blue Note showcase, she translates futuristic cuts like “Bankhead” and “Take Me Apart” into timeless-sounding jazz and neo-soul numbers. Alongside tracks from Cut 4 Me, 2015’s Hallucinogen EP and her two studio albums (2017’s Take Me Apart and 2022’s Raven), she throws a curveball—an ethereal cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Furry Sings the Blues”.