Lauryn Hill
AMY WINEHOUSE
Discography:
Frank, Island, 2003.
Much can be said about Amy Winehouse, one of the U.K.'s flagship vocalists during the 2000s.
The British press and tabloids seemed to focus on her rowdy behaviour and heavy consumption of alcohol, but fans and critics alike embraced her rugged charm, brash sense of humour, and distinctively soulful and jazzy vocals. Her platinum-selling breakthrough album, Frank (2003), elicited comparisons ranging from Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan to Macy Gray and Lauryn Hill.
Interestingly enough, despite her strong cockney accent and vernacular, one can often hear aspects of each of those singers' vocal repertoire in Winehouse's own voice. Nonetheless, her allure has been her songwriting - almost always deeply personal, but best known for its profanity and brutal candour.
Born to a taxi-driving father and pharmacist mother, Winehouse grew up in the Southgate area of Northern London. Her upbringing was surrounded by jazz. Many of the uncles on her mother's side were professional jazz musicians, and even her paternal grandmother was romantically involved with British jazz legend Ronnie Scott at one time.
While at home, she listened to and absorbed her parents' selection of greats: Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra among others. However, in her teens, she was drawn to the rebellious spirit of TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and other American R&B and hip-hop acts of the time.
At the age of 16, after she had been expelled from London's Sylvia Young Theatre School, she caught her first break when pop singer Tyler James, a schoolmate and close friend, passed on her demo tape to his A&R, who was searching for a jazz vocalist. That opportunity led to her recording contract with Island Records.
By the end of 2003, when she was 20 years old, Island had released her debut album, Frank. With contributions from hip-hop producer/keyboardist Salaam Remi, Winehouse's amalgam of jazz, pop, soul, and hip-hop received rave reviews. The album was nominated for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize as well as two Brit awards, and its lead single, "Stronger Than Me," won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song.
Following Winehouse's debut, the accolades and inquiring interviews appeared concurrently in the press with her tempestuous public life. Several times she showed up to her club or TV performances too drunk to sing a whole set. In 2006, her management company finally suggested that she enter alcohol detox, but instead, she dumped the company and transcribed the ordeal into the U.K. Top Ten hit "Rehab," the lead single for her second, critically acclaimed album, Back to Black.
Containing evocative productions from Salaam Remi and British DJ/multi-instrumentalist Mark Ronson, the album somewhat abandoned jazz, delving into the sounds of '50s/'60s-era girl group harmonies, rock & roll, and soul.
CHECK OUT GREAT AMY WINEHOUSE VIDEOS
The fanfare over the release was so great that it started to spill over onto U.S. shores; several rappers and DJs made their own remixes of various songs - not to mention covers by Prince and the Arctic Monkeys.
One month after Winehouse won Best Female Artist at the Brit Awards in February 2007, Universal released Back to Black in the U.S. The LP charted higher than any other American debut by a British female recording artist before it, and it remained in the Top Ten for several months, selling a million copies by the end of that summer.
Just as in the U.K., she became the talk of the town, landing on the covers of Rolling Stone and Spin magazines. Not long afterward, though, Winehouse cancelled her North American tour. Early reports revealed that she was entering rehab for alcohol and drug addiction, but her new management denied the claims, stating it was due to severe exhaustion.
Her erratic behaviour kept her and her new husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, constantly in the tabloids and on and off stages on both sides of the Atlantic, but in late 2007 American fans were finally given a chance to hear Winehouse's early work, with a slightly abbreviated (two songs removed and one added) version of Frank. ~Amy died of a drugs overdose in July 2011 Cyril Cordor, All Music Guide
Source: Artistdirect
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ARETHA FRANKLIN
Discography:
Aretha, Columbia, 1961.
Electrifying, Columbia, 1962.
In a career spanning nearly 50 years, Aretha Franklin has truly earned her place as the Queen of Soul. She has performed songs in different genres as well, such as blues, R&B, jazz and rock.
Aretha Franklin was born in March 1942. Her father was a preacher and her mother was a pianist. Franklin developed an exceptional talent for singing and playing piano. Through recordings made during her father’s sermons, she appeared on a gospel album at the age of 14.
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It wasn’t until 1960 that Franklin signed a contract with Columbia Records. Her early releases reflected her jazz influence, most notably "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody". Seven years later, she moved from Columbia to Atlantic Records and began to craft her own distinctive sound. Her second single for the new label was "Respect" which was originally recorded and written by Otis Redding. Not only was "Respect" a worldwide chart-topper, she won two Grammies for it.
Franklin had huge hits in the late 60s and early 70s with memorable songs like "Chain of Fools", "I Say A Little Prayer" and "Think". She rose to prominence again in the 1980 film ‘The Blues Brothers’ where she made a cameo as Mrs Matt Murphy. She signed to Arista Records and began recording material with Luther Vandross, who was a huge fan.
Her biggest hits in the 80s came from collaborations with not only Vandross but the Eurythmics and George Michael. "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves" became a rallying cry for women campaigning for equality, while "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" introduced her to fans from the Wham! generation.
After a brief period of returning to her gospel roots, Franklin’s next big commercial success came in 1993, lending her vocals to the soundtrack of Sister Act II: Back In The Habit.
1998 was a landmark year for the Queen of Soul. She released the album "A Rose Is Still A Rose" - a departure in style from her previous material - with contributions from the The Fugees’ Lauryn Hill. Later that year, she gave a memorable rendition of Puccini’s "Nessun Dorma" at the Grammys when Luciano Pavarotti was too ill to attend.
An album of duets was released in 2007, featuring Franklin sharing vocals with the likes of Gloria Estefan, Frank Sinatra, John Legend and Mary J Blige. She was also given the honour of singing at the inauguration of President Obama in 2009. She has won 18 Grammys in total, she is the second woman to be inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame and the first black woman to appear on the cover of Time Magazine. An incredible feat for an astonishing talent.
For The Record:
Born March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tenn.; daughter of Clarence L. (a minister and gospel singer) and Barbara (Siggers) Franklin; married Ted White (a businessman), 1961 (divorced); married Glynn Turman, April 11,1978 (divorced, 1984); children: (first marriage) Clarence, Edward, Teddy. Education: Attended schools in Detroit, Michigan. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Baptist.
Gospel singer, 1952-61, performing as member of her father's traveling Baptist ministry; recorded first album of gospel music in 1956. Rhythm and blues/soul vocalist, 1960—; signed first with Columbia Records, 1961, transferred to Atlantic Records, 1967, transferred to Arista Records, 1980. Has given numerous live performances in America and Europe, including a special command performance for the birthday of England's Queen Mother. Appeared in film "The Blues Brothers," 1980, and in Showtime television special, "Aretha," 1986.
Awards: Grammy awards for best female rhythm and blues vocal performance, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1981, 1985, 1987, Grammy awards for best rhythm and blues recording, 1967, for best soul gospel performance, 1972, and for best rhythm and blues duo vocal (with George Michael), 1987, for "I Knew You Were Waiting"; American Music Award, 1984.
Addresses: Home—8450 Linwood St, Detroit, Mich. 48206.
The mid- to late-1970s were a difficult time for soul music in general, as the rigid beat of disco held sway. Franklin was one of many singers who suffered a declining audience during the period. Her professional woes were compounded by a series of personal problems—her father was rendered comatose by a shooting during a burglary in his home, and her first marriage failed. Then, just as her career was beginning to rebound under the Arista label, Franklin was involved in an incident aboard a small airplane that caused her to fear flying. Some observers feel that only the need to pay her father's expensive hospital bills kept Franklin recording during the early 1980s. The Reverend Franklin died in 1984, never having recovered consciousness after the shooting. The following year Aretha recorded the album that can legitimately be called her "comeback" project—Who's Zoomin' Who, a snappy work reminiscent of her early material. Though well into her forties, Franklin cavorted elegantly through several "Who's Zoomin' Who" videos that became immensely popular on MTV and helped two singles, "Freeway of Love" and the title tune, top the pop charts. "I wanted something that kids would enjoy," Franklin told Newsweek, "something that would span the age gap, but not leave older fans behind. The soul is still there."
Franklin is still bothered by her fear of flying, so much of her work is accomplished in or near Detroit, her home base since 1982. Her recent hit single, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)," paired her with George Michael, a pop singer seemingly from another generation altogether. In the wake of that success, Franklin has returned to her first and lasting love—gospel, with the release of a dramatic double album, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. As Franklin once remarked in Time, "My heart is still there in gospel music. It never left." Franklin does not intend to leave pop music's ranks permanently, however. She told Newsweek that she sees singing—any kind of singing—as a means of escape. "It does get me out of myself," she said. "I guess you could say I do a lot of traveling with my voice." Mark Moses pays homage to the Queen of Soul in his New Yorker essay, calling Aretha Franklin "both the statesman shouldering history and the woman wishing herself back to childhood .. . as if there were no extremes that her wide, rippling voice could not reconcile."
Source: Anne Janette Johnson
This information is provided as a brief overview and not as a definitive guide, there are other sources on the net for that. If however you have a story or information that is not generally known we would love to hear from you. Content@rokpool.com
