Amy Winehouse: Bringing down the house or just a wino?

British pop singer Amy Winehouse is somethin' else! I've listened to her studio albums and watched a live show that included a cover of Lauryn Hill's classic Doo Wop (That Thing). However, I find myself asking the following question again and again despite several listens to her music: Is Amy any good? What is there about her that brought world-wide acclaim? Her music or the persona? Either way, I was initially drawn to her because of her attempts to recreate the sound of black music from a previous era, mainly soul/R&B. More surprisingly I discovered her love for vocal jazz and pop. Suddenly Amy became more than a white soul-pop singer and I found myself preferring her jazz-influenced first album Frank more than the successful subsequent release, Back to Black, which as you can probably guess, refers to the rebirth of 1960s soul.

So let's begin with her first album, Frank. First of all, the title likely refers to the legendary Frank Sinatra, whose music, along with other pop and vocal jazz artists, provided the musical backdrop of her childhood. Amy's father raised her on this type of music and the album shows it. Following in the footsteps of 90s American R&B and neo-soul, the album features Salaam Remi on production and hip-hop-influenced beats and some sampling. For example, October Song, a tribute to bebop/pop vocalist Sarah Vaughan, includes a moment where Vaughan sings the melody of the jazz standard "Lullaby of Birdland" and hip-hop styled beats. Another piece, "Cherry," samples the jazz standard "Girl from Ipanema."
My biggest problem with this album the way in which it was marketed as a jazz album though it features very little improvisation. Amy sings in the style of Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington with a contralto range that demands the listener's attention, but cannot retain. I found myself getting bored with this album after the first three songs...
Perhaps even more annoying is when Amy referred to herself as a jazz singer in an interview though there is very ltitle jazz on this album and she apes the styles of famous vocalists instead of creating something new. However, in her defense, her rendition of "There is No Greater Love" was decent despite the cheasy nighttime effects. I suppose I could also recommend "Fuck Me Pumps," "Cherry," and "In My Bed" as well...

Back to Black, her next album that brought mainstream success, shifts away from vocal jazz to retro soul. It retains modern styles of R&B production like Frank but samples soul songs. My favorites from this album are the obvious "Rehab," "You Know I'm No Good," and "Tears Dry On Their Own," which samples my brotha Marvin Gaye's "Aint no Mountain High Enough." The rest is just a downhill trip that, despite Amy's interesting voice, fails to hold my attention. Of course the stylistic changes that accompany Back to Black are significant to me.
Once again, a white musician takes "black" music and makes herself wealthy and earns fame and fortune while everyone ignores the true innovators and originators of the style. Neo-soul singers don't have to be black in order to be legitimate neo-soulsters but it is interesting that a Jewish woman from London would become so successful singing in that style...
Naturally Amy Winehouse's persona and drug problems also fueled album sales and gave her broader recognition because of the attention the press gave her at the time. Thus despite the dearth of good music on the album, the fact that Amy's personal life is ineffably troubled imbues songs like "Rehab" with startling realism. Like Billie Holiday, Amy lived through a lot of the ordeals described in her music, thereby authenticating it. ]
Ultimately, she is mostly a wino, but has the potential to bring the house down. She channels the spirit and sound of black music within her own unique vocals on Back to Black but fails to deliver a solid studio recording. I impatiently wait for her comeback album with production help from Mark Ronson and Questlove...

The Genius of James Brown

Ah, tis unfortunate that no one nowadays recalls the immense contributions of James Brown to music and culture for black America and through hip-hop, influencing white America.  Drawing on the influences of hard bop, Louis Jordan, and soul, James Brown revolutionized black music by creating funk with the seminal song, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." His gift for dancing, entertainment, and singing influenced Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. Jackson's dances directly channeled the legendary Brown.
Brown also went through stylistic shifts during his long career. His early records, such as Please, Please, Please followed contemporary trends in soul music that were initiated by Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and Motown. After 1964, with 'Papa's Got a Brand New Bag,' featuring Maceo Parker's wonderful saxophone solo and a funky backbeat, introduced funk to America. What followed was a gradual shift toward funk in Brown's music, culminating in his 1970s albums and the amazing 'Sex Machine.' This period of Brown's music is the most sampled music in hip-hop. The breakbeats, funky horns, and basslines have been sampled by everyone since early hip-hop history. For example, Public Enemy's best album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, features drum samples from the 'Funky Drummer' for several songs on the album. Brown's music is perfect for hip-hop music since it's totally rhythmic. The repetitious features of his funk are perfect and represent a revolution in African-American music.
Though one of the general features of black music is repetition, polyrhythms, and the use of blues phrases, Brown was innovative for putting emphasis on repetitious rhythms, blending electric and acoustic instruments, and gospel-shouts. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, black people in America had James Brown for our superstar. I suppose the equivalent for white folks would be The Beatles, but Brown's music is more interesting personally.
In addition to influencing the hip-hop generation by providing the samples, James Brown became a legend in Africa. African diasporic music such as Brown's was incredibly popular throughout Africa and influenced Nigerian legend Fela Kuti's music. Kuti's music has a greater social and political consciousness than Brown, but the funk basslines and Kuti's saxophone solos were pure American funk.
I guess the only way to conclude is to reiterate the greatness of Brown.
'The Payback,' 'Sex Machine,' 'Papa's Got a Brand New Bag' and Brown's backing band, The JB's, revolutionized black music. 'The Grunt' by the JB's was masterfully sampled by Public Enemy for 'Night of the Living Baseheads' if you would like to hear the use of Brown's music in hip-hop.
Although my knowledge of Brown is limited to his 60's and early 70's output, his later material and pre-funk material are still worth experiencing. Everything about the man was so tight, and despite his processed European hair, he defined blackness and cool for an entire generation of black Americans. To hear the man and not bob your head to the funky aura emanating from him is to hate life.

The Wonderful World of Music

Jazz drummer and black nationalist Max Roach's civil rights/protest jazz album, We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite, may be my current favorite jazz album. Featuring Roach's future wife Abbey Lincoln as vocalist, Sun Ra's Arkestra member Julian Priester on trombone, Coleman Hawkins on tenor for the first track and other jazz greats, the album effectively combines traditional and progressive trends in jazz music in 1960. The previous year, Ornette Coleman's revolutionary The Shape of Jazz to Come introduced free jazz and the beginning of the atonal avant-garde period in jazz. 
While initiating the "new thing" in jazz, Coleman's music remained suffused with the blues. Similarly, Max Roach's album (the music composed by Roach himself on melodica) retains strong blues influences, especially on the first track, "Driva Man", a song about slave drivers. The song begins with blues-inflected vocals by Abbey Lincoln who accompanies herself on the tambourine and awesome tenor sax playing from Coleman Hawkins, who represented the swing tradition in jazz history. 
The next track, Freedom Day, progresses in African-American history to the Emancipation Proclamation and Reconstruction. Entitled "Freedom Day," Lincoln's vocals are featured along with an interesting horn arrangement. The music itself does not move me nearly as much as Lincoln's voice. Like bebop, this song features very fast horn playing and improvisation at a fast tempo. Though an important period in African-American history, this song does not move me nearly as much as Driva' Man. 
"Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace," an extended piece featuring only Max Roach on drums and Abbey Lincoln is interesting for embracing aspects of free jazz and wordless vocals. It starts like a spiritual, with Lincoln wordlessly singing the melody, then switches to screaming. Apparently Roach convinced Lincoln to start screaming at this point to represent the pain and suffering of African-descended people in the United States. Roach really shows off his drumming abilities as someone capable of adding "texture" to the extended piece.
The next piece, "All Africa" takes us to Africa and connects the anti-colonial struggles there with the Civil Rights Movement. It begins with Lincoln singing the names of African ethnic groups or "tribes" while accompanied by the Yoruba drummer Babatunde Olatunji. Olatunji sings a Yoruba prayer simultaneously and then the song shifts into an African drum circle with Roach, Olatunji, and additional percussionists. This part of the song symbolizes the connections between African American and African music and the persistence of African rhythms in African-influenced music. 
The final piece, "Tears for Johannesburg," is a memorial to the victims of the Sharpeville Massacres in apartheid South Africa. Blacks protesting against the apartheid state's laws were killed by the government in 1960. Directly linking the Civil Rights Movement with apartheid in South Africa led to the album being banned in South Africa.
The piece is also interesting for the use of congas and a simple vamp which is improvised over by the musicians. Julian Priester's trombone also brings to mind the music of Sun Ra, which in his early years, featured a lot of exotica/world/Latin/African-inspired influences. Lincoln's wordless singing introduces the melody of the piece which is only heard later and there are moments of collective improvisation near the end. This song is undoubtedly my favorite of the album and really demonstrates the global-consciousness present in Black America. Since the 19th century African-Americans have demonstrated this racial consciousness that transcended national borders but it was only in the 20th century with Marcus Garvey and the black nationalist movements of the Civil Rights era when black Americans broadened their struggle to that of colonized Africa. In addition, Roach was a firm believer in Malcolm X's views rather than Martin Luther King, though he performed this album live for the NAACP and other integrationist groups. 
Thus, this album has strong political and social messages that celebrate African-American history while criticizing imperialism and racism. In my humble opinion, this album is one of the most celebrated jazz albums because of its blend of social consciousness and the fusion of old and new musical traditions, such as blues, spirituals, free jazz, and hard bop. Roach's gifts as a composer are also highlighted for the first time. Anyone interested in the music of this legendary drummer who played for so many other jazz legends such as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Bud Powell, and Duke Ellington must hear this LP. It truly is off the hook!