Amy Winehouse: songs in the key of life

A 12-year-old Amy Winehouse wrote that she wanted to make people forget their troubles. On the anniversary of her death, Tim Jonze talks to those who knew her at the start of an extraordinary career

Improvisational genius … Amy Winehouse at the Mercury awards in 2004. Photograph: Redferns

Bill Ashton remembers vividly the day an awkward 16-year-old girl by the name of Amy Winehouse turned up at his National Youth Jazz Orchestra. "The singing coach, Annabel Williams, came up to me after rehearsal and said: 'All she did was sit in the corner smoking for England – she didn't join in at all.'" He laughs. "But when it came to performing the song with the big band, she just got up and nailed it first time. Just from listening to the others do it."
A few months later, in June 2000, the NYJO staged a show at Rayner's Hotel in west London. Their singer dropped out at the last minute; Winehouse didn't know the songs, but wasn't fazed when Ashton called her. "She just said: 'Don't worry, I'll learn them on the train.' So between her stop in north London [Southgate] and Rayner's Lane, she learned all four songs on her Discman, and she sang them brilliantly. To do that is extraordinarily rare."
On the first anniversary of Winehouse's death, it's worth remembering just what a natural, instinctive musician she was. Her later, often shambolic shows (in particular that heartbreaking final performance in Belgrade) have gone some way to obscuring the memory of Winehouse at her best: she was one of the last decade's true superstars, a performer who could be strong, emotionally devastating, yet vulnerable, too. A 2006 appearance at the Other Voices festival in Dingle, which screens for the first time on BBC4 on Monday night, remains one of her most powerful: the singer is mesmerising as she interprets several songs from Back to Black over a stripped-back band.