Amy Winehouse RIP

[hackneyvi]

http://londonjazz.blogspot.com/2011/07/amy-winehouse-and-nyjo-photos-and.html

One forgets ...

... she's still dead.

Always going to be dead.

[amateur51]

Very moving, hackneyvi - I never knew this

Many thanks for posting

[Serial_Apologist]

Bull's tribute re-raises the isuue I and 1 or 2 others have raised: if only Amy had stuck with the jazz community.

[Lateralthinking1]

Very interesting indeed. She described herself as a jazz singer. It seems that there is a pressure on young singers to take the celebrity route, whoever they are.

Tribute programmes are often disappointing. However, this programme, with parental guidance, is so good I have watched it twice. Jools Holland presents it sensitively and all of the performances are strong. I was surprised that there were so many television clips where she had clearly held it together. It also shows how unusual she was in her appreciation of traditional forms of late 20th century music - soul and reggae as well as jazz - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...house_Tribute/

I do feel that there were some psychological issues long before the heavier addictions. They were there in her demeanour and her talent. The short tribute on Radio 5 described a person who deep down was shy rather than full of the street bravado she displayed, much more generous with money towards others than herself, funny and intelligent, a cat lover, and with a caring and rather maternal instinct quite rare in this day and age. The more I heard about what she was like below the surface, the more I liked her.

I liked her respect for, and understanding of, popular music, her innate musicality, and her real ability for getting to grips with classic vocal stylings. None of the post-Whitney caterwauling and overly dramatic noise that so many parade as gymnastically musical. I liked her offbeat character when it worked positively. She was also a singer who unusually for these times could produce an emotional response in me. To be honest I found her appearance and her London Jewishness very appealing, whatever her modern, harsher, edge.

I think these performances will stand the test of time sadly more than she could. Paul Gambaccini was right. We have probably lost along with the person twenty years or more of good records. This was an artist who could have been very interesting, and convincing, in middle age and older age. She was certainly several miles above most of the pop output during the past decade.

[Serial_Apologist]

Very interesting indeed. She described herself as a jazz singer. It seems that there is a pressure on young singers to take the celebrity route, whoever they are.

Tribute programmes are often disappointing. However, this programme, with parental guidance, is so good I have watched it twice. Jools Holland presents it sensitively and all of the performances are strong. I was surprised that there were so many television clips where she had clearly held it together. It also shows how unusual she was in her appreciation of traditional forms of late 20th century music - soul and reggae as well as jazz - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...house_Tribute/

I do feel that there were some psychological issues long before the heavier addictions. They were there in her demeanour and her talent. The short tribute on Radio 5 described a person who deep down was shy rather than full of the street bravado she displayed, much more generous with money towards others than herself, funny and intelligent, a cat lover, and with a caring and rather maternal instinct quite rare in this day and age. The more I heard about what she was like below the surface, the more I liked her.

I liked her respect for, and understanding of, popular music, her innate musicality, and her real ability for getting to grips with classic vocal stylings. None of the post-Whitney caterwauling and overly dramatic noise that so many parade as gymnastically musical. I liked her offbeat character when it worked positively. She was also a singer who unusually for these times could produce an emotional response in me. To be honest I found her appearance and her London Jewishness very appealing, whatever her modern, harsher, edge.

I think these performances will stand the test of time sadly more than she could. Paul Gambaccini was right. We have probably lost along with the person twenty years or more of good records. This was an artist who could have been very interesting, and convincing, in middle age and older age. She was certainly several miles above most of the pop output during the past decade.

I know somebody who, previously unbeknown to me, had heard through friends of meeting Amy on quite a few occasions; and from speaking to her yesterday she would entirely back up what Lat has written in his message above, contrary to my own earlier preconceptions.