Ella Fitzgerald

Happy Birthday, Ella Fitzgerald 1917-1996..."First Lady of Song", "Queen of Swing","Lady Ella" is considered by many as the finest female jazz singer of all time. Her three octave, warm and inviting voice always projected how happy she was to be singing (sometimes to the detriment of more downbeat songs). Listening to her swinging and scatting with such joy it's hard to believe that her early life was as difficult as Billie Holiday's.

Born in Newport News, Virginia, Fitzgerald's parents separated shortly after her birth. Fitzgerald and her mother moved to Yonkers, New York to be with her mother's boyfriend a few years later. When Fitzgerald was 15 her mother died of a heart attack which traumatized the young Ella. Her stepfather began abusing her at the same time and Fitzgerald ran away to live with an aunt, working as a look out at a bordello at one point. Authorities eventually caught up with her and put her in an overcrowded orphanage, then moved her to a state reformatory where she escaped and lived homeless.

Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer but she loved listening to jazz singers, especially Connee Boswell. Fitzgerald would say of Boswell, "My mother brought home one of her records and I fell in love with it...I tried so hard to sound just like her." She was still living homeless when she made her singing debut at the Apollo Theater at the age of 17 in 1934. She originally planned to dance but was intimidated by the Edwards Sisters who did a dance routine before she went on. She decided to sing instead and performed "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection" in the style of Connee Boswell and won first prize.

Three months later she won the opportunity to sing with Tiny Bradshaw's band at the Harlem Opera House where she was introduced to Chick Webb. Webb was reluctant to take her on at first because, "she was gawky and unkempt, a diamond in the rough" but she was soon singing with the band at the Savoy Ballroom. Webb and his wife would become close friends and helpful allies for the young, shy Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald and Chick Webb's band recorded several hits including "Love and Kisses" and "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" a song she co-wrote which finally put her on the charts in 1938. "Undecided" followed shortly and Fitzgerald's star began to rise. In 1939, Chick Webb died and it was decided that Fitzgerald would head the band even though she had little to do with the repertoire or the hiring and firing of musicians. The band would be known as "Ella and her Famous Orchestra", making over 150 recordings, most of them pop and novelty tunes.

In 1942, Fitzgerald broke up the band and began a solo career, recording with the Ink Spots,  Louis Jordan and The Delta Rhythm Boys and performing regularly for Norman Grantz's Jazz at the Philharmonic. Grantz would eventually become her manager. As the swing era declined, Fitzgerald began experimenting with the new bebop sound, touring with Dizzy Gillespie's big band and adding scat singing to her repertoire. Fitzgerald stated, "I just tried to do what I heard the horns in the band doing."  Her scat recording in 1945 of "Flying Home" was lauded by the New York Times as, "one of the most influential jazz vocal records of the decade." Her bebop recording of "Oh, Lady Be Good" in 1947 cemented her reputation as one of the leading jazz vocalists.

Fitzgerald married bassist Ray Brown in 1949 (they divorced in 1953) and used his trio as back-up as well as recording with Ellis Larkins on piano doing Gershwin songs that predated her Great American Songbook series. She would finally leave Decca in 1956 and Grantz created Verve records for her. She had come to a place in her career where she felt she had taken bop as far as she could and Grantz suggested she turn to songs written by some of the great American songwriters. She recorded the first in the series, "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook" in 1956. The series was immensely popular and was the perfect vehicle for Fitzgerald to reach out to listeners beyond the jazz audience

"Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook" was the only set of records where the composer she was covering played with her. Ellington and Billy Strayhorn appeared on half of album's tracks and wrote two new pieces of music specifically for the recording. The Songbook series turned out to be her most critically acclaimed and successful recordings and although they were not "Jazz" in the traditional sense, the albums were important for putting a spotlight on the individual composers and elevating popular music as a musical form to be more seriously explored. There were eight different composers covered in the series. While recording the Songbooks she was also touring the United States and internationally 40-45 weeks a year.

During the 50's and 60's Fitzgerald would record other studio albums and in 1955 played the Macambo nightclub in Hollywood  after Marilyn Monroe intervened with the manager on her behalf. In 1960 she recorded "Ella in Berlin" (still one of her most popular albums) where she sang "Mack the Knife" and forgot the lyrics, making them up as she sang along. Her recording "Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72" was another enormous hit but her voice was beginning to lose it's clarity and tone.

She made a few films in her lifetime, most notably a part in "Pete Kelly's Blues" which was panned as a movie but Fitzgerald's appearance was lauded. She appeared frequently on television and made several commercials including a famous one for Memorex cassette tapes that featured her voice breaking a glass. Her last commercial was for American Express which was photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

During the 70's her voice began to fade due to health problems and she recorded and toured only sporadically during the 80's but she never lost her joy and sense of swing. She made her last recording in 1991 and her last public appearance in 1993. She died of congestive heart failure and complications from diabetes at the age of 79. Over her lifetime she sold over 40 million copies of her 70-plus albums, won 13 Grammy awards and was honored with the National Medal of Arts and the National Medal of Freedom.