'Modern-day Ella Fitzgerald' jazzes up Moscow
Published 19 October, 2008, 08:46
She was a Jewish girl from Ohio who gave up opera for jazz, and nowadays, Amy London is even compared to Ella Fitzgerald. A Moscow audience got the chance to see her perform at the capital's 'Union of Composers' club.
“Wow, a white chick who sounds black!” That's what renowned New York jazz trumpeter Tom Browne said as he first heard her voice. And she became the first white person he put in his band.
Amy London thinks jazz music actually has many colours, as it's constantly being influenced by different cultures.
“Jazz is a truly integrated art form and that's what so beautiful about it. You can be any religion, any colour, any country and you can play this music,” she says.
She could have become an opera diva accompanied by a symphony orchestra instead of a jazz band.
But after Amy took a BA degree in opera and sang in a church choir for a while, she decided that her calling was jazz.
“Frankly I don't have real high notes,” the singer admits. “To be a soprano you have to have high notes and I would get a sore throat. And I just went, this is not for me, I love jazz”.
Jazz is the main, but not the only passion of her life. She adores her family – daughters Sofia and Anna and her husband Ronny. And at home there’s of course room for another passion – cooking. “I love to cook and I love to feed people,” Amy laughs.
Singing and cooking – these two things were also Ella Fitzgerald's favourites. According to many jazz critics, Amy London has inherited a lot from the great jazz diva.
Like the great lady, Amy London thinks that “the only thing better than singing is more singing”. She also has a catchy jazz saying of her own – “Viva la jazz!”
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