Friday Night Jazz: Amy Winehouse

December 7, 2007 6:31pm by

Amy_winehouse
We mentioned how much we liked Amy Winehouse back in April of this year.

Back then, her new album was Back to Black, which we wrote "freshens up the classic soul albums with original songs done in the style of the 1950/60’s girl groups . . . falling between Billie Holiday and Ronnie Spector."

Well, it turns out that we are not the only ones who are enamored with her: Winehouse was just nominated for six Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, Song and Album of the Year, and the prestigious Record of the Year (not that I can explain the difference between album and record of the year).

Since then, Back to Black has sold over one million copies in the US alone.

Frank
However, since it is Friday Night Jazz, I wanted to bring her prior UK album to your attention: Frank. On the strength of Back to Black, and a few recs from friends in the UK, I picked up the import version shortly after I got Back to Black in the Spring.

Frank is new-to-America — but its not new at all. Frank was actually her UK debut album; The US release was on November 20, 2007, and was likely done to capitalize on the sales of Back to Black.

If you liked Back to Black, I would expect you will find Frank worthy of your attention. Where Back to Black was based on ’60s girl groups and ’70s soul, Frank is a much jazzier R&B album. And like her other album, its strong all the way through.

Back_to_blackWinehouse brings her refreshingly sly sense of humor with a take no-prisoners, put up with no bullshit persona. She gets away with this all the while, because she has the vocal chops to back it up. This combination is epitomized in the boozy song "Fuck Me Pumps."

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Both albums stand out for their simple but powerful approach: Very strong instrumentalists fronted by an extremely talented lyricist/songwriter/vocalist.

 

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Source:
Amy Winehouse has reason to celebrate with six Grammy nominations
Adam Sherwin
The Times, December 7, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2ewcur

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What's been said:

Discussions found on the web:
  1. VJ commented on Dec 7

    George Lopez is just plain jealous.
    .

  3. The Financial Philosopher commented on Dec 7

    BR: My music biz background can help with your wondering over the difference between Album of the Year and Record of the Year:

    Album of the Year = Award goes to Producer, Artist, and Sound Engineer for record production and creative production of the entire Album as a whole.

    Record of the year = Award goes to Producer, Artist, and Sound Engineer for one single recording.

    Songwriters are only recognized for “Song of the Year.”

    Caveat: The only thing more political than the music business is Politics itself. Those nominating and voting are only NARAS members inside the industry who always get together and “pool votes.” I worked for in international publishing firm and the entire staff had meetings to decide how votes would be cast (I never complied). What’s more, at least half of the NARAS members (music biz employees) are not music people.

    Do you recall the first award in the “Hard Rock” category was given to Jethro Tull, who beat Metallica?

    I’ll stop myself there…

  4. blam commented on Dec 7

    OK Barry

    Since you are serving up pablum the last few days…. what the hell is going on…. Noriel Roubini – ? Big Picture ? Did you get the call ?

    I have to assume ……

    If the g-men came to visit you and you are now a supplicant — just don’t answer.

  5. blam commented on Dec 7

    Barry

    Just reread my post – meant to be a tease. Too harsh from a truck drivers son.

    If you please — delete my post.

  6. MarkTX commented on Dec 8

    WOW,

    Great albums and a lot of

    awards/grammy nominations…

    too bad her personal life has been F’ed all year by herself and her fiance

    Amy Winehouse Vs. US Economy/Market

    Which one is more on drugs?????

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