Peter - I disagree on one count with those comments.

They suggest that Winehouses singing is untrained and unprofessional compared to Linda Ronstadt, and that her singing somehow comes from a primal source.

There are numerous musicians in history who have had this said about them - people like Miles Davis, John Coltrane - and about how they express some deep instinctive roar that comes out of the ether, unaffected by learning.

This celebration of the musical "noble savage" is all very endearing at first, until you consider that all the musicians who are described in this way usually turn out to have worked day in day out to perfect their art from a very young age.

In the case of Jazz Musicians like Charlie Parker, Chet Baker, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, the fact is that they were all very highly informed.

They might not have studied at university, but they grew up playing as apprentices under the tutelage of experienced musical mentors - which is basically the same thing as what happens at universities.

I know it isn't anyones intention to denigrate musicians of this ilk to describe them as forces of nature, but rather they are indulging a romantic fantasy and investing the artist with a magical alter ego.

However, I feel it is more respectful to acknowledge the expertise and hard work of artists who truly were consummate professionals - so good that they didn't sound like 'professionals', but instead were able to strike a resonant chord with any listener.

Nina Simone is a perfect example of this - people hear her and imagine the simple southern american black girl with her soul steeped in blues - and this isn't necessarily wrong - but what they often fail to acknowledge is that Nina is a qualified Doctor of Music.

Amy Winehouses Dad was and is still a Jazz singer, and Amy grew up listening to and singing along with Billy Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Kraal etc ... and you can hear them all in her voice.

Her timing and paraphrasing are first class and both original and informed.

Amy went to stage school to perfect her art and developed it through hard work and exhaustive practise.

So to ensure that she gets the full credit she deserves, she should be recognized not just as a silly girl with a gift, but as a total professional whose career was the result of hours of hard graft in the practise room.

On a slightly tangential note, of the musicians I have referred to above, at least 5 out of 8 also suffered from addiction.

Jazz is a hard genre to perform and many musicians take something to calm their minds when they play lest they make utter fools of themselves in the process.

My vice when i play is nothing more extreme than half a beta blocker as it controls adrenaline reabsorption.

Alcohol is the most common drug, but Heroin sadly has decimated the ranks of our greatest creative minds, because they couldn't face getting on stage without it.

Sad but true.