Amy Winehouse — North Sea Jazz Festival, 2004

Live capture of Amy Winehouse’s set at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague, July 2004. Barely twenty years old, the British singer is touring Frank, her 2003 debut — a record steeped in vocal jazz and soul, where her already distinctive voice channels a phrasing inherited from Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington. This live filmed concert catches her before the Back to Black breakthrough: a mischievous, sharp-tongued performer backed by a jazz ensemble in the plush setting of the Dutch festival. The full concert is worth watching both for the quality of the capture and for what it documents: an artist in the making, in command of her swing and self-deprecation, on one of Europe’s most respected jazz stages. A precious record of Amy Winehouse’s Frank era, live at North Sea Jazz in 2004, for lovers of soul and contemporary vocal jazz.