'The First Lady of Song,' Ella Fitzgerald is known for her sweet jazz and sultry ballads, peerless vocal technique and wide vocal range.
American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, dubbed "The First Lady of Song," is a celebrated jazz vocalist who won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums. She invented scat singing, a breathless, nonsense syllable technique for her songs "Lady Be Good" and "Flying Home." Her ability to improvise and rewrite her songs made her a favorite with jazz music aficionados.
Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917 in Newport News, Virginia and raised in humble beginnings in Yonkers, New York. Her parents, William and Temperance, separated shortly after her birth. Ella and her mother moved in with her mother's long-time boyfriend Joe Da Silva. She has a half-sister, Frances, born in 1923. Despite the difficulties of growing up, her singing talent was obvious at age 16, when she performed at Harlem's famous Apollo Theater at an amateur competition.
Career and Recognition
It was Bandleader Chick Webb who spotted her in this amateur competition and eventually engaged her to sing with his nightclub band. She took over this band four years later when Webb died in 1939.
From 1938, Ella Fitzgerald became a household name, recognized as a major female jazz singer. Her career-establishing hit record "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" (1938) was made with Webb's band. Fitzgerald absorbed the popular "white" music of the 1930s and her recordings of songs like "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" were bestsellers.
She sang works by famous songwriters such as George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, at the same time recording with great talents such as the Oscar Peterson Trio, formed a singing partnership with Louis Armstrong, toured with Dizzy Gillespie and appeared in television specials with Duke Ellington. She also produced two albums with Ellington with his orchestra.
In 1943, Fitzgerald became the youngest person ever admitted to the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. She married in 1947, but retaining her maiden name. She adopted a child.
Her popular Songbooks produced in the 1950s interpreted the music of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and Duke Ellington.
In the 1970s, Ella Fitzgerald sang with symphony orchestra around the world and remained an active performer in concerts, television, and recordings. She also spent two weeks performing in New York with Frank Sinatra and Count Basie.
Awards
The winner of countless awards, she received among others:
- Kennedy Center Honors for her contribution in the arts.
- In 1987 she was honoured by then US President Ronald Reagan at the White House with the National Medal of the Arts.
- France followed years later with Commander of Arts and Letters Award.
- Universities gave her honorary doctorates.
- In 1989 the Society of Singers presented her its first Lifetime Achievement Award.
Last Years
Fitzgerald underwent quintuple coronary bypass surgery in 1986. A valve in her heart replaced and diagnosed with diabetes, rumors had it that she will no longer sing. She proved her detractors wrong. She continued to perform on stage.
She gave her final concert at Carnegie Hall, New York in 1991.
At 76, her illness worsened. She had severe circulatory problems and her legs were amputated below the knees. On June 15 1996, Ella Fitzgerald died in her Beverly Hills home. She was laid to rest at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.
Ella Fitzgerald Recordings (MCA Records):
- Ella Sings the Band
- The Best of Ella
- The Best of Ella Fitzgerald: Volume II
Ella Fitzgerald Recordings (Verve Records):
- Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook
- Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook
- Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook
- Ella and Duke on the Cote D'Azur
- Ella and Louis
- Porgy and Bess
