I was saddened to hear that Amy Winehouse was found dead earlier today. She was only 27.
I first heard Amy Winehouse sing in this mashup, where she put Ella Fitzgerald to shame (Ella is the first voice you hear, Amy is the second).
I had heard of her from media coverage of her private life, but I was rather surprised to discover that someone who attracted that kind of coverage was also such a genuine talent.
The world is now worse off for no longer having that talent among us, with all its potential forever unfulfilled. And it's tragic that even with all that talent and wealth she was never able to find peace.
Here are a few of her songs that always end up on repeat:
5 comments:
I was sad to learn this, too.
I had the same surprise to learn that she was talented. To me she had a long way to go before that talented developed, I didn't feel she had done much with it yet, except become a spectacle.
Terrible.
It's not really fair to compare the two voices in that mashup, because of the difference in recording technologies available at the time of recording. Amy's voice was almost certainly enhanced by techniques not available to Ella (or Bessie Smith, Billy Holiday, etc. etc.).
Even with recording technology, Britney Spears (to use the first workable example that comes to mind) could not be made to sound better than Ella. Just as good as Ella, probably, but they can't manufacture that whole extra layer or two of resonance in Amy's voice. (And when they try to do it, it sounds even more artificial than a typical recording)
That's true. But we don't know what Ella would have sounded like with today's technology, so we don't know how she would compare to Amy Winehouse.
I listen to lots of old blues and jazz, so this is something I think about a lot.
I wonder whether there is anyone in existence who has heard both of them live.
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