Amy Winehouse - Will you still love me tomorrow (with lyrics)

This song is a good litmus test of a singer and Amy passes with honours!

Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm Not Good - 1080p - Tradução/Legendado - Liv...

Always nice to see a live stage performance. Some say she was nervous in large venues but I think she is doing just fine here. Very much at home in Portuguese . Nice expressive stage presence.

Amy Winehouse & Paul Weller - I Heard It Through The Grapevine (Live at ...

Amy duets with Paul Weller on Jools Holland's 2006 Hootenanny. First time hearing Paul but I think he is really great. He has good chemistry with Amy here again. This is also a favourite song of mine. One made famous by the great Marvin Gaye.

Amy Winehouse Paul Weller dont go to strangers Jools Holland

Amy Winehouse was a British singer and song writer born in1983 and who started her career in 2003 with a critically acclaimed album nominated for the Mercury Award and winner of the Ivor Novello Prize for the song Stronger Than Me. A follow up album was one of the best selling albums in British history, called Back To Black. At the 50th Grammy Awards she won Five Grammies in one night! She performed at Nelson Mandela's birthday party in London and also at the Glastonbury Music Festival. But her story was one of the saddest in modern music with a history of substance abuse and alcoholism and death at 27 from alcohol poisoning.Very sad as she had so much talent and so much more to give to music.After her death Back to Black was the best selling British album of the 21st century for a short while. She is ranked as 26th in VH1's list of 100 greatest Women of song. RIP Amy.

I Need Your Love

Ella reminds me very much of Inez Foxx on this track. And there's nothing wrong with that by any means!

Smoke Get in Your Eyes

This is a nicely resonant version of a Jazz standard.

Autumn Leaves (French)

Ella is equally at home in French, but if like me you don't speak French the English version is available. It uses the same background.

Only You

Ella Woods studied Opera at the University of Southern California and an early collaboration was with The Platters for 5 years. Living in Southern California gave her the opportunity of meeting people like Elvis, Shirley Bassey and Michael Jackson and of working with Joe Sample and The Jazz Crusaders. She has formed her own band and toured extensively in the USA and Europe. On her father's death she recorded an album of Gospel. Very enthusiastic reception in Europe prompted an album with some French songs. She says these audiences do not hide their emotions! I have only recently discovered her through This Old Soul of Mine and knew at once on hearing this Platters hit that she is special.

Esther Phillips "You're coming home" (live officiel) | Archive INA

Got this this morning. An all too rare a clip of Esther Phillips performing live . She was the consummate Queen of this kind of close up with a small ensemble backing in the clubs! I have read through the very comprehensive booklet supplied with her boxed set Brand New Day.Gives a complete history of where every one of the 103 tracks comes from and how this fits into a life so desperately sad in places yet triumphant in others. She had a meteoric rise to fame with multiple hits starting at 15 followed by a crash into obscurity at 19. This triggered deep depression, alcohol abuse and drugs. During this phase she had several admissions to rehabs including a stay in a notorious Kentucky mental institution as well as some time in jail. But she continued to plug away at some of the seedier clubs, as she says sometimes being on the road for 500 miles a day to get to the next booking and so the only way to keep going with hardly any sleep seemed to get high. However she eventually turned her life around by means of a TWO YEAR stay in a very tough rehab run by recovered addicts. It was tough, she said, no medicines and she was not allowed to do any music. But they sat up with you all night to see you through! This was 1972. Unfortunately a decade and a half of abuse had caused damage and she died in 1984 at the age of 48 from simultaneous kidney and liver failure.RIP Esther.

Moonglow

Samara Joy McLendon was born in 1999 in The Bronx. Her father is a professional bassist and her paternal grandparents started a gospel group in Philadelphia. She attended Fordham High School for The Arts. She won Fordham University's Best Vocalist competition and was named an Ella Fitzgerald scholar at SUNY's Purchase College. In 2019 she won the Sarah Vaughan International Voice Competition. She released her first album while still in college. She has already toured extensively in the USA and Europe, and was named best young artist by Jazz World. A second album followed in 2021 earning her two Grammy nominations in 2022. She is booked at Lincoln Center Jazz Festival.

Samara Joy sings a beautiful rendition of “Stardust”

Samara performs on the pavement in Harlem outside Grant's tomb.Beautiful!

Erma Franklin - I Get The Sweetest Feeling

I was delighted to find this performance by Erma Franklin. She retired from recorded music at 34 due to lack of significant recognition and spent the next 25 years working at Holy Cross Community Center in Detroit, an organisation which helps disadvantaged children. I am stunned that someone of her immense talent was ignored !